


As They Deserved

by Ithillokte



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Naruto
Genre: Abandonment, BAMF Higurashi Kagome, Inu Yasha has to redeem himself, Kagome gets training, Mentions of attempted rape, Mentions of kidnapping, Other, Politics, Preventing Uchiha Massacre, Sasuke is so freaking cute as a kid, Sesshomaru will be impressed with Shisui's speed, Shinobi learn about yokai, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:01:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 42,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26373148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithillokte/pseuds/Ithillokte
Summary: Kagome realized the well was tampered with when she landed in a very deep circular well, looking up at what she thought were two Tengu without yoki. She was supposed to be home. After finding that the magic in the well needed time to recharge so she could go home, she is placed under the protection of two ANBU guards who are to stay with her 24/7, as a dark hand wishes for her power. Hiruzen didn't think this would be the way to save the Uchiha, but he is grateful to the girl. Things would not have turned out so well if she had never been plopped into their laps. Itachi and Shisui certainly don't mind.Massacre preventionAU/Canon divergence
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi/ Higurashi Kagome/Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 42
Kudos: 55





	1. Where am I Tengu-san?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is something I had in mind when writing the BUG series, and instead of combining them into one fic, which would make it horribly hard to write, as each of BUG is supposed to only have ONE guardian, not two, I opted for this. The idea completely ran away from me, and before i knew it, I had 40K words in one half, a huge portion of unwritten area, and then a ton of ideas I had written afterwards, which is currently at 41k. I have been working on connecting the two halves, and after realizing that i had no gone back to edit things for continuity for a while, I realized that I was happy with it, which meant that it was ready to post. So here we are, I hope you enjoy this threesome full of silliness, klutzy Kagome, wholesome moments, super cute Sasuke, Kagome fangirling over Sasuke with how cute he is, and Itachi thinking she is adorable for thinking Sasuke is adorable, and Shisui just plain thinking she is cute. Nevermind the angst and plot, combat, character development, ect. that I have planned..... Without further ado, Please enjoy my labor of love!

It had been in the works for months now. He had contacted her long ago, and asked her what she thought of creating a separate destination for the well to transport the Miko to. That wench! He would rid of her, he had failed to kill her, so he would send her to a place she couldn't return from. He helped the Hag move her things closer. She began to set up her spell, and he formed a barrier over the area. She would be vulnerable while doing this. The last thing he needed was for the group to return sooner, or the miko in the village to sense them, and shoot them. This way it wouldn't matter if she sensed them. She was unable to break his barrier.

  
The 'Hag' wasn't from Japan. Only taking refuge here when she has been chased from her continent by the raging holy men that now paraded the entire face of the continent, ridding it of magical creatures. She saw this as something fun to try. She had never made a portal from one place to another open elsewhere. And this one was powerful. Too bad her disguise was really good. The deities of this tiny island ask that she deceive the artificial hanyo and make a portal who's destination would allow the miko help in ridding of him. She wasn't too fond of him either. He had threatened her life multiple times just to try to get her to do this without being killed. AKA he wanted her services for free. 

It was why she agreed to the god's favor first. This abomination's thirst for power was beyond disgusting. She just wished she could give his heart to the underworld in Egypt, her friend would get a tasty snack. She had been able to work in that she required protection, but it was more so that he would unknowingly watch her put in the beginning of his demise. She hoped the gods allowed this girl to be happy with whomever she had chosen, or who had managed to have her fall for them. She deserved it for taking this asshole out.

She opened her scroll, copying the sigils onto the magic that created the portal in the well, instead of closing the way home, and turning it into a one way portal, creating two destinations, where all the girl would have to do is think of which destination she wished to go. Furthermore, those with her power about them could also pass through the well to whichever destination they wished. She wrote out the array in the well, the actual portal making would begin after she used it for the first time, and would take a couple weeks to build itself into something independent of her. The first jump to the new destination would be made by her power, then once a destination was opened, the portal would create a gate there itself.

She laughed at her genius internally. 

* * *

  
Kagome hummed happily as she walked along with Inu Yasha. They were almost at the village, and she was going to break off before they entered the village proper. She was going home. She couldn’t wait to have a bath, and home made food her mama made just for her. Then she was gonna finish a couple assignments, and have them part of the turn-in package. Inu Yasha had said they would need a few days for Kilala to recover even with the herbs for the poison. It was the perfect time to restock and get her next pack of homework.

Her teachers now just made a collection of all the assignments given to the class for her to complete individually with notes from her friends, since she was 'sick' all the time. This time her mother stepped in and told the school that she had developed a long-term sickness called fibromyalgia. This allowed her to still stay enrolled, but to miss as many days as she needed, her excuse for pain allowed her to call off social gatherings, saying the medicine for pain would make her loopy for a few minutes, and then sleep it off. She did school work whenever possible, and it allowed her to stay in the past however long she needed to. All she had to do was show up for exams, and she could graduate. No more embarrassing illnesses from her grandfather. 

She seriously loved her mom.

  
“Alright, I'll be back in about a week, I have some tests I need to take, and some homework to finish, then restock and spend a few days with my family!”

Oddly enough, Inu Yasha was fine with this. He was probably going to see Kikyo for a while. It still hurt that he constantly compared her with the dead woman. Even if she had no romantic interest in him anymore. All she wanted was to be seen as herself. She was Kagome. Why couldn't he understand that?

She waved goodbye, and sighed sadly before breaking off from the group to head to the well instead of going through the village, then the well, and cutting off a lot of time. She wasn't gonna be sad today! Today was shower day!

She made her way through the thick, old forest around the well, until she came to the clearing that held the old thing. Picking up her pace for the final stretch, she cheerily made her way over to the edge of the well, faced away, sat down, then turned, swinging her feet into the well before removing her backpack and quiver with her unstrung bow inside to hold onto so it wouldn't get caught when she jumped into the well. She slipped over the edge, and into the waiting portal, and to home.

Only it wasn't. 

She called out to them first, to show she meant no harm. “Hello? Can you help me out please? I think I am lost.”

She was startled by the red eyes peering down at her. “A-ano, yokai-san, please, I'm not like the other miko, I won't hurt you, I've been taking care of a kitsune kit for over a few months now. I like yokai as long as they don't want to hurt me or eat me.”

It was weird though. She didn't feel any yoki coming from them. “I don't think I can climb these stones either.”

She heard whispering, it was argumentative, before both came to an agreement. “We will take you to the Hokage. Is that alright?”

Both the figures at the top were highly confused with the reply. “U-uh, what's a Hokage?”

* * *

  
“I have a feeling she really is lost. And rather confused. We should take her to Hokage, and see if we can stay in with her, I hope she is willing to explain what she means by all this. She might even be able to help the village. She has a strange calm feeling to her, like she could heal everyone.” 'And our clan' Was the secret look he gave Itachi. He just had a feeling about her, and he also felt that she wouldn't mind at all, and even go out of her way to help if she could.

With that, he hopped into the well, purposely landing with sound to make sure he didn't startle the girl. 

“We arn't yokai, miss. We are shinobi. Let me help you out of the well. We need to bring you to see the Hokage, maybe we can help you find your way home.”

He held his hand out for her. “Ah. I'm Higurashi Kagome. I've never met a shinobi before. Mostly humans and yokai, with a few hanyo here and there. I didn't mean to offend you.” She was honest, and bright, but he could tell there was much more about her. A lot of sadness. He was hoping Hokage-sama would allow them in the room with her.

“Ano, how are we gonna get out of the well? Only yokai and hanyo could jump out. I thought you would have just tossed me a rope.”

Shisui let out an amused puff of air from his nose. “Well, here shinobi can jump as you say. Hold on to me please Higurashi-san.”

She blinked at that, and took his hand. He pulled her to him, and held her waist tight, only waiting till she had thrown one arm over his shoulders before jumping up. His curiosity was peaked when she didn't squeeze him from the sudden movement, or tense up, almost as though she was used to quick movements.

“Thank you for helping me out of the well. The stones in there are too smooth to try to climb out of, I would have ended up hurting myself and still be at the bottom.“ She double checked when she looked at her 'savior's eyes and saw they were black when she knew they were red. The other person, who she was also assuming was a shinobi also had black eyes, when she knew they were red before.

“Hello there.” She said to the other shinobi. “I'm not from here, and I don't really know how much of anything works. What's a Hokage and what do they do?”

Simple information like this could be given easily. It was public knowledge anyways. “A Kage is the leader of a hidden village. He makes sure everything runs smoothly in the village and surrounding villages of that country. You are in Konohagakure, in The Land of Fire, and there are a multitude of reasons why you need to see the Hokage. The main one being you just appeared out of thin air in the bottom of a well after an alien energy signature flared up from it. You are lucky it was us that found you, other shinobi would have just killed you.”

Kagome was silent for a moment. “Oh. I'm sorry if I troubled you. Once again, Toto we aren't in Tokyo anymore. Why does this always happen to me?” There were a multitude of things pertaining to her. The heaviest one was sadness. He couldn't understand why she would be sad though. 

Shisui smiled at her. She was obviously scared, but used to being so. Being in what he assumed was a new place from thin air would be scary. He could tell she had little confidence in herself, and that it was most likely due to someone constantly tearing it down. He could tell that she didn't deserve that. He offered a peace token to try and smooth things over.

“Well, Higurashi-san, My name is Uchiha Shisui, and my partner here is Uchiha Itachi. I think there is more than what meets the eye. Hokage-sama may be able to help you, but we have to know what's going on. Konoha is an hour's walk, but only around ten or so minutes for us, so please, climb on, I'll carry you to Konoha so we can get this over and done with sooner, and hopefully you can relax. Most likely he would be willing to help you.”

Itachi gave Shisui the stink eye for giving his name. Shisui could give his own, but it was supposed to be his choice if he wanted to give his own name or not. Shisui just gave him a crooked smile, then crouched down in front of Kagome, offering his back for her to climb on.

Kagome was glad she had switched to bland green dyed jeans and a pigmented purple baggy sweater dress. It came complete with hood, front joined pocket that was more hand warmer than pocket, and extra long sleeves that were tight at the ends, and kind of bulked up on her forearms the way her school socks used to. It was completely shapeless on her, and reached above her knees. Her jeans were baggy except at the unseen tops, which were glued to her thighs practically, and the rest kept her legs hidden and undefined. She wore Crocs shoes, also in purple, but a more wine color. She clashed horribly. Her hair was up in a pony tail that reached mid-back, and no jewelry could be spotted on her.

“Ah! It's nice to meet you both!”

And she put her backpack on overtop her quiver and climbed onto Shisui's back. 

Itachi wondered about her. She looked like she lived in a sack. Like she was hiding. Why? What would make her hide?

Her bow was unstrung and tucked inside the quiver on her back. It looked like an old make. Something reliable.

They left the clearing, heading to the gates, and then to The Hokage tower. Shisui noted that she was used to being carried this way. She wasn't afraid at all. She seemed to be looking around as much as she could, taking in sights. She had a gentle smile on her face. It suited her much better than the nervous sad girl from earlier. Itachi noticed too. They shared a look. Both were interested in her, this strange girl from somewhere else.


	2. She Came From Nowhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiruzen finds her beyond interesting, yet he can tell that these Uchiha will keep her to themselves... He doesn't mind indulging them.

Heading up to the tower, they told the receptionist that they had a S-class issue to speak with the Hokage, and it should be seen to right away. Luckily he was not in a meeting, but instead just doing paperwork. It was put to the side and cleared away.

Shisui held the door open for Kagome, Itachi following her, and then Shisui. “The wards please Hokage-sama.”

Kagome felt what seemed to be electricity shoot up her spine, and the hair on her arms stand on end. She could see the barrier enclosing the room. She shivered, and tried to rub the hair down. She was led to stand before an older man, Definitely a grandfather in age, most likely to multiple grandchildren. His eyes were sharp, and cunning however, and he looked her over, and knew there was something amazing unfolding in front of him. She looked almost scared. He could tell she was trying to hide it.

“It's okay. He won't hurt you unless you threaten the village, and I doubt you would. You don't strike me as someone who ever could or would hurt someone else, never mind a village.” Shisui tried to calm her down so she would actually be able to tell them what she needed too.

  
“Hello young lady, my name is Sarutobi Hiruzen. I am the current Hokage. Who might you be, and what brings you here with some of my best shinobi?” His voice was kind, but his gaze was analytical. He was assessing her.

“I-I..My name is Higurashi Kagome. And I think I am not in my own world any more. This world is strange. I think something happened to the well I use to travel back and forth. The story of the well is a long one. But it's supposed to bring me from my time back to the past, about five hundred years, and vice versa. To complete a really big task. I think something happened to the well in my world. It's never brought me anywhere else beyond home and back. I could tell though that while I can't go home right now, or I would have tried already, the magic in it is recharging. I am not sure exactly how long it will take to recharge, but I will be able to go home once it is.”

Hiruzen seemed confused. “So you are lost then?” A different world? This girl was FAR more interesting then she let on.

“Yes. I can tell I'm not in my world because I don't recognize anything. The names of places that have been told to me are alien, there are no landmarks that are familiar to me in any way. Plus I have never ever felt the energies that are present in this world, and I am very sensitive to them, since I am a supposed miko and all. In fact, one of the main things Miko do is help with yokai. I thought they were yokai when I first saw them, with their red eyes. I thought maybe tengu, but they don't have any yoki. In fact, before today, I've never met shinobi before. From what I can tell, there are no yokai in this world. It feels.....”

And she closed her eyes, and they felt a gentle brush of her powers as she spread her senses out wards trying to look for something familiar. They all blinked, and with a moment it was gone. What was that?

“It feels.... empty.” Her sad tone caught their attention. Why would that make her sad? Weren't all yokai evil?

She looked around, noticing the surprised, hesitant look they gave her, and a scared look came over her face. Her face paled, and her knees started shaking. That was a very stupid thing for her to do with probably thousands of shinobi who could kill her at the drop of a hat, and she would be powerless to stop it all. She couldn't help it though. It was instinctual for her to do.

“I-I'm sorry! I didn't hurt anyone! I promise! It's natural for me t-to sense creatures and people around me, c-cause otherwise I would have b-been dead long ago...I was just spreading my awareness outward! It's harmless! Please don't hurt me!”

Spreading her senses? What was she talking about?

Her obvious fear coupled with her outburst had Hiruzen thinking. He observed her head whip to the wall where he could sense another one of his personnel walking down the hall. Barely. How could she sense what he almost couldn't?

“Please relax Higurashi-san, your situation is obviously unique, and requires a completely different approach to normal. I assume you are being vague about this issue due to extenuating circumstances on your part. You obviously have a tale to tell. I have time to hear it if your willing to tell what you can of it. What of your world? Can you tell us how it's different?”

She visibly relaxed at this. “May I sit please? This will take a very very long time. There is so much. I can't give you much more than the bare bones, and even that will take quite some time. I think my world, and time is a good place to start. And can they stay? They are kind of the only people I know, even if they are just as much strangers to me as you are. They were nice enough to get me out of the well instead of just leaving me down there.”

He nodded and motioned to Itachi, raising his fingers to count three. Apparently all of them were gong to sit. Itachi went to the door and asked for three chairs, and let the secretary know that the Hokage would be busy for quite a while. 

She took off her backpack and quiver, and dug around in her bag. She pulled out a couple solar panels attached to a cord, and weird black screened thing with a glittery purple back, a small black square peeking out from the glitter, and what looked like broken headphones, until she snapped them into position, a rounded blue cube with what he thought were speaker holes on the top, and a small square blue pad. She set the solar panel up in the window, and plugged a wire into the blue pad, and set the purple glittery thing with the black screen on it.

“This is an example of some things from my world. It's very technologically advanced. This is a cell phone.” She pointed to the black screen rectangle with the glittery purple back. “Well the proper term is cellular telephone. I saw one outside on your secretary's desk, so I know you know what a phone is. A cell phone in my world can be carried anywhere with them in the world, and they can contact anyone anywhere at any time. We use a global series of special towers that provide a service connection area to the cell phones. But for all intents and purposes, this is a wireless communication device that works globally in my world. In my world information can be sent and received instantly. Outside it, it's a glorified music player that can hold and take pictures, because the network it needs to connect to doesn't exist here. Consider it an example of what is possible here in this world with technology. I’ll show you some pictures of my friends and family later. Maybe take a couple so you can see how the camera works. I can crop and edit pictures too. I like doodling on them. Especially my one friend when he makes me mad. I just doodle all over his face.”

Shisui smirked at that. Itachi’s face showed nothing, but his aura was amused. Hiruzen smoked his pipe with a smile on his face. She pointed to the headphones next. 

“This is the physical proof of some of the wireless communication aspects. There are no wires connecting this headset to my phone, yet I can hear music my phone plays, and take calls with them in my world. They are called bluetooth headphones. ‘Bluetooth’ means wireless. It's like a wireless version of a communication radio. You have those right? These make it so you don't have to hide a wire under the clothes. We have smaller ones that just sit in the ear, and unless you can see the ear directly, you don't see it. Office workers use them all the time in my world.”

Hiruzen blinked in surprise, Shisui seemed really interested, and Itachi kept his face passive, but ever watchful as he just listened. “That would be incredibly useful. You said it plays music too?”

She smiled, happy to have someone actually listening to her, and interested in what she was talking about. “Yes! We also have speakers that connect in the same way. Both use rechargeable batteries that are highly efficient. Let me play some. Oh, and this thing is just a solar charging station I bought since there is no electricity in the feudal era, and I am using it here cause I am not sure if the plug ins for electric components are the same. The blue pad is a qi charging pad. It charges my phone’s battery without having to plug my phone in and wear out the connector pins from the constant plugging and unplugging of my charge cord. Makes the phone last much longer.”

She lifted the phone from the charge pad, and unlocked it with her fingerprint. Their eyes widened at the screen and how she used it. How did she turn it on? The possibilities this had were massive. Almost world changing. Hiruzen's mind kept jumping from one thing to another before he could even complete a thought. Shisui knew he was right. Itachi wanted to know more. They all came to look over her shoulder at the screen. She expected this and tried to hold it at the optimal angle for everyone to see.

She switched on the little speaker, and waited for the two noises to play indicating it being on, and then that it had paired with her phone, and the volume control came down. She put it on max, then touched an icon on the screen that looked like a play symbol. She scrolled through her playlist, and after a while, selected an Irish song that had a accompanying translated version that she promised to play afterwards. 

“My world has a whole slew of different languages. This one is in Irish, or as it's commonly called Gaelic. This is my dad's native tongue. I have his eyes. He passed away when I was younger. We live in different countries, on different continents.” 

And she pressed the play icon. Music began to play in a different language than any they had ever heard before. She then pulled out her notebooks for school, and a pencil, and ripped a couple empty pages from the books. She wrote out the original lyrics in their original language on the paper for the song, and then the translation in English and then again in Japanese. On a second piece of paper, she translated the words directly, writing each word in columns so they could see each word and what it meant.

Hiruzen thought it was beyond interesting. She started singing with it form where she had a chance to interject with it. The knowledge the girl contained was massive. This girl was obviously incredibly intelligent. He knew what he had to do after hearing what her story was. Itachi and Shisui didn't look like they wold mind this particular mission, the both seemed completely taken with her and her origins. Shisui caught his eye, and smiled at him, giving him a secret thumbs up. No Shisui and Itachi certainly wouldn't mind. In fact he suspected that they would rather enjoy this mission. He knew they wouldn't hurt the girl or use her.

“Kagome, may I keep these? I would like to keep it with the notes I have on you. The notes are for your protection, and to aid us in aiding you in the future.” He motioned to the words and their translations.

Itachi and Shisui thought she was beyond interesting now. This technology was beyond anything they had right now. If this was just one small part of that, then her world must be amazing. She then played the translation song, and she translated the two bits that wern't translated.

“'Mo gro' means 'My love' and 'Ta me idir gro' 'I am between love' It's a really pretty song to be honest. It's supposed to be the song that the selkie- err, the seal-women sing to create and sustain the magic, and magical beings in my world. Celtic mythology is really interesting. I can show you pictures. As I said before, my phone can take and store pictures. I have taken some of my friends. My mom loves seeing my past adventures when I can get pictures. Some are not so great, because I am running for my life or fighting. Or the ‘target’ of the photo is hiding.” She flipped through her phone, showing the pictures of each person that she could. All three nin balked at the picture of Sesshomaru. How could someone look unearthly beautiful, still be male, and wasn’t he a demon? This didn’t look like one… Kagome had to explain. 

“Guys, this is what I mean. They are too perfect. He looks like someone any girl would die to be with. The ethereal look to him beyond his claws, hair eyes, and the markings on his face and arms that denote him a poison user, as per nature’s warnings, is what says he is yokai. A ridiculously powerful one too. His tier of yokai is Dai Yokai. They are the kind of Yokai who have the intelligence and ability to lead. They are usually in Lord or official positions in a court. There are four Yokai ones in my world. Myoga the flea, another yokai friend who is about…..” She looked around and tried to find something the same size… then she spotted hiruzen’s pen. It had a button on the back end. “That big” and she pointed to it “said that Inu Yasha has been not only incredibly disrespectful with how he addresses people, but that he has also shirked his duty as the second Prince of the West. I learned soon after that Sesshomaru-sama is a cardinal lord. Myoga was supposed to be Inu Yasha’s retainer.”

She continued to flip through the pictures, explaining who everyone was, different moments that happened in the picture. Miroku groped Sango, the next being her beating him over the head with her Hiraikotsu. All of them balked at how she could even lift the thing. Shippo playing a prank on Inu Yasha. Kilala all cute and cuddled up in her small form. She explained about true forms, and yokai transformations after showing them a picture of her in battle form, and this one. Myoga the flea waving to the camera, The thunder brothers, a few really blurry shots of Yura of the hair, the toad prince, Tessaiga transformed. Then it changed to her time, A terrifying blob with a noh mask where the face should be, the mask divided in half vertically with teeth protruding from it’s edges as it tried to devour Inu Yasha’s fist, a little girl, Kagome said, the camera was capturing images of her soul, and in the picture was an unexplained orb, and then a short video of the orb doing as Kagome asked it to do picking up puzzle pieces of a toy, or pushing a wooden car around on the floor, tossing a ball and catching it, playing with a doll. Then Kagome’s voice going ‘Thanks Mayu! The camera can only see your soul, but the things your doing help a lot!’ Then it changed scenes again, going back to the past. A black haired, human Inu Yasha, then a giant spider-thing with a body made in the shape of a web, silk flying everywhere, some blurry shots with little demon spiders all over, Inu Yasha severely injured, still black haired, showing signs of poison, Shippo looking panicked, and then with the rays of morning a once again Hanyo Inu Yasha vanquishing the spiderhead demon as Kagome called it. The hell painter. Onigumo’s cave, Kikyo trying to drag Inu Yasha to hell, Blurry shots of water, and the false water god, fighting Naraku at his castle, and finally, Jinenji and his mom.

She left her phone to charge on the wireless qi pad, and left her phone on shuffle with a warning that she liked a wide variety of music, and just let it play whatever it pleased.


	3. Auras and Boogeymen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They learn Kagome can see ghosts.

She sat in the seat Itachi had procured for the three after her big show of her world’s technology. There was a lot to explain, and it still seemed early in the day, So she launched into it. She explained to them what airplanes were, then about schooling, history, other technological advances, how they attained true peace, after the horrifying wars and how. She hoped they wouldn’t try to torture her for information when she gave them her refusal for this subject being spoken about. She sucked in a breath and let it out, steeling herself for this next topic.

“I do need to tell you about how we gained all this technology. My world didn't not have wars. They were large scale and involved the masses. Billions of people were killed. In fact, in the last World War, 95% of my worlds male youth was wiped out in the countries they came from. It was so bad that we pretty much mentally scar all the future generations to ensure that it never happens again. The education given on it is hard to take sometimes. It also allows us to pick out those who are not mentally stable at an early age. Those who would be happy to do what those sick 'doctors' in the Nazi army did. I say this due to the mass amounts of weapons we have. And they can be used by anyone. Even small children. It's the one point I will not tell you about no matter what you do or say to me. I won't be responsible for everything that did happen in my world some how getting out and repeating what happened here. Remember that we don’t have that weird energy you all have. I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s everywhere. In my world we don’t have any kind of energy normally. Well at least not anymore. Mine came out of dormancy when I fell down the well. The education we give makes all generations want to continue the peaceful ways we have kept to since that war over seven decades ago. So please don't ask me about anything involving the destructive capabilities in my world.”

Hiruzen's eyes were wide. Weapons that were so easy small children could use?! And without chakra?! No he wouldn't ask about that. The possibilities in this world for that sort of technology was horrifying.

“You have my word that I won't breathe a word to anyone else about it, and neither will my shinobi.” That was a direct order, and they knew it. They also understood it. Shisui could practically see her radiating with a very serious solemn determination that spoke of how important this was to her.

“I promise on my word as a Konoha shinobi that I won't give anyone any information on the weapon's you speak of. Not even on pain of death.” Shisui meant it. He understood with perfect clarity all that she was hinting at.

Itachi nodded. “I also give my word that no one will ask you of your world's weapons, nor will I speak of them or their existence.”

She nodded, a weight seeming to come off her shoulders at the promises made. She then talked about The Shrine, how her government worked, and finally came to her quest, and her mentions of the well. The sun had set, and Kagome had drained a bottle of water trying to keep her mouth from going dry. Hiruzen had written what he could down. There was so much this strange girl from another world knew.

“May we take a break? I'm starving. I think I have some granola bars left in my bag. I was coming home to restock supplies and turn in my homework, but I might even have some jerky left. Kilala mostly ate the dried fish I got her.”

Hiruzen chuckled at her “Just a moment.” and he poked his head out the door, and asked for four meals, and drinks.

“Well, I certainly didn't expect this. This is exciting, isn't it Itachi?” Shisui had a smile on his face. Itachi just nodded. “She has given the village new heights to achieve.”

“Uh, sorry to say, but it's not a race. My world has had time and peace to attain these things. This world still feels very conflicted. Mine has almost complete global peace for almost seventy years.”

Hiruzen looked at her. “Are you serious? No wars or violence? Bloodshed?”

“No, I grew up in a world so peaceful, we have developed tools to disarm someone carrying a multi tool that happens to have a knife in it, and something like that having to be used usually makes the news, and the person who had the knife is publicly shamed, and then sent to counseling to get mental help. I have one. Hang on a second.”

Crickets. It was very quiet. That was such a far off dream..... She dug in her bag for the multi tool she spoke of, her Swiss Army knife. She let them each have a look at it. More crickets. This got people arrested in her world? She let them check it out at their leisure. She saw Hiruzen drawing it on his paper.

Kagome grew a little nervous. “Yeah, keep that bit in mind for what happens next, which I will get to after I have some food in me and can actually try to remember everything. There is so much that happened. Would you believe that with how I grew up, I've seen hundreds of large-scale battlefields? Well, not active ones, but still. So many skeletons, some were still rotting corpses and the smell!! Ugh! There were a few times that I couldn't eat for days cause the smell was stuck in my nose, or the wind brought whiffs. Sometimes we were able to avoid them because you could hear the scavenger yokai fighting for scraps from far off. It was horrifying. I think the worst was finding all those villages we were too late to save, all slaughtered. The group I travel with and I are practically professional grave diggers now.”

Her solemn tone made the situation real to them. What had she gone through to say that? She kept mentioning yokai. How did she know of them? Did her world have Biiju?

Itachi stared at her. How could she be so happy after seeing what was probably a worse war than the one he had been through and still be happy and smile like that? And what was that feeling earlier?

Her head whipped to the corridor, as she followed the auras of three people going one way, and passing another going the opposite way. She watched as the aura paused at what she knew was Hiruzen's assistant's desk, and then continued on its way down the hall. The three nin were watching her.

“Higurashi-san,” Itachi began. “Do you mind explaining what that weird feeling was earlier when you talked about the world feeling empty? And why you are able to sense hidden chakra signatures?” She was like a blood hound. He'd never seen anything like it.

  
“Your kidding right? What's chakra? And those auras are not hidden. They are very bright, almost blatant.”

“Auras? What's an aura?” 

“Uhhh... the best way to describe it.... Well, I am incredibly spiritually aware, and it makes me super sensitive to a lot of things. Like auras. You guys can't sneak up on me because you can't hide your aura. For me, it's like your trying to sneak up on me. In the middle of the night. Using fog lights to make sure you don't trip. It's ridiculously obvious.”

“"Ha, Ghosts beware, Kagome will keep you away with her stare!"

Kagome giggled. 

"Actually, that's true. I helped a little girl once. She was acting violently and trying to kill her little brother who had just survived the fire that had killed her. She thought she was mad at him for surviving. Turns out she just wanted to apologize to her mom for leaving and not telling her mom where she was going and for starting the fire by not listening and putting her scarf to close to the heater. I kept her from going to hell. She was a really nice little girl, and I am glad I could help her move on peacefully. You saw the video of her earlier. Her name was Mayu." 

The gentle, fond smile on her face was probably the prettiest they had seen her so far. Shisui blinked. What?!? 

"You can actually see ghosts?" 

Her secretive Cheshire cat smile made him think 'Oh god.' 

"Yes. Am I a scary bogeyman to you now?" And she made the worst boogie noises. Shisui just laughed at her, and Hiruzen let out a genuine chuckle. Itachi just looked at her in surprise, unable to really figure out how to react to this.

  
She giggled, happy she could make them laugh.“Anyways it's a skill I need to survive the Sengoku Jidai. Otherwise I would have been dead a long time ago. Auras also help tell you what's going on. I can tell a lot from someone's aura. Like I know you three aren't power hungry, and won't experiment on me, and I can tell you about everything I am, without worrying that you might stop me from doing what I need to do, or hating me, or not believing me. Well, I do have quite the proof, don't I? I can also tell that you guys are completely blown away with everything that has come out of my mouth, and that if you were less collected, you'd have caught several dozen flies by now.”

She giggled when they just looked at each other with a 'Is this girl for real?' look on their faces. She was enjoying this aspect of her abilities. Immensely.

  
“Anyways.. an aura... It's.... the energy that surrounds a soul, your soul gives it off. It's something I have always had the ability to see, and Mom just didn't understand why I still colored people I drew well into my teens with different colors instead of what they actually looked like. I can get a basic idea of who someone is, how they are feeling, if they are evil, or good, so like for example, I noticed quite a few power-hungry people on the way here.”

She began playing with a necklace under her sweater dress. It held her father's wedding band that her mom had given her after she had said she really missed her dad and her mom just ended up being super sad whenever she saw it. She knew it would help her daughter more than it would help her, and thus had given it to her. 

“If you'd like I can point them out to you later. I will be avoiding them if I can. An aura can also tell me if someone is about to attack, and if the aura is strong enough, like a yokai's, where they will attack and how. This part might be a bit awkward... It makes me rather empathic... I can see the pain all of you carry with you for example. “

She winced when they looked at her blankly, their auras told of wariness. She hoped explaining further would put them at ease.

“This may sound nuts, but the very basics of a Miko, which is what I apparently am, is to heal and protect. So I am drawn to those who hurt, and feel compelled to help them heal. My aura usually kick starts that just by being around the people hurting. I'm told it's soothing. They are drawn to me naturally. And yes. I am drawn to you two, and I would like to see you outside this....whatever it is.. if it's alright with you two at least, if only to appease my nature, as long as it's not a bother and I'm not a burden please.”

She paused to take in their thoughts, and let them absorb what she said. Shisui looked like he would love to hang out near her afterwards. She couldn't read Itachi's face, but his aura spoke of interest. Hiruzen looked to be in agreement with her, according to his aura. She did her usual fidget of slipping her fingers through the ring one by one, and then her thumb, it looked like it fit the digit perfectly, and yet she just slipped it out, and started over again. It was an unconscious act. One that was obviously self soothing. She also wasn't looking at them anymore, but out the window behind the desk, with a 'not there' look on her face.

“I... have no control over who comes either. It's left me in some tough situations.” She said all of this slowly, like it was hard to say. And it was for her. She was forced to admit her weakness, even if it was a forced one. 

“I've been kidnapped so many times, I... know exactly what to do from experience alone. I've been almost raped a few times, and have a few big scars from injuries I have attained from various situations. Some requiring that I injure myself to get away. I've almost died at least almost a hundred times. And I'm not exaggerating either. I have a task I need to complete, and it's exceedingly dangerous. My world is in danger if I don't. And here's the kicker. So far I've survived on sheer luck alone, because while I love my friends, they are complete morons that won't teach me how to defend myself, even though that would make it tons easier to do at least three quarters of the task we have, and prevent a lot of situations from happening.”

Her face looked like a mixture of sad, frustrated and angry. It looked tired and worn. All three ninja were solemn at her admission. Hiruzen most likely would have offered Konoha's aid, with how dangerous and important this task was sounding to be, and hopefully be able to establish a good relationship with this world, but he was unsure if anything would be able to go through the well. And he doubted she had enough time here while the well recharged to be able to give her training to help her in her task.

“Ah. They do sound like morons. But I wonder if there is another reason why they have refused to teach you anything. Have you asked?” Shisui was insightful as always.

“Yes! They said they don't want my hands covered in the blood theirs is! But they already are! I've killed thousands of yokai with just the proximity my purifying arrows take off in, hitting the hoards of them and clearing them when Naraku attacks us! Not that I'm actually hitting my original target!”

This was said sarcastically with mounting frustration and helplessness as the backing emotions.

“I've had to kill humans too, bandits trying to kill me or take the shards of the Jewel! Greedy, power hungry Samurai that wanted to have 'fun' with me, Villagers that were basically zealots that thought that sacrificing me would bring back their super powerful ancestors... I can go on and on! On top of that, I'm the one who patches them up after fights and battles. My hands are more stained than theirs will ever be! The hands of a healer always are!”

She was yelling, at this point, and the pain in it was palpable. They could almost feel it as if it was their own. She realized she was yelling, and tried to calm down. She continued and her voice shook.

“Everything I know as a miko has been learnt on the fly, no guidance what so ever. What I do know I only learned from experimentation. My powers are emotionally triggered too, which means it's dangerous for my yokai friends. I could accidentally purify them, and their souls out of existence, because Naraku might lets say.... get to my family on the other side of the well for example. God forbid! But I could be essentially having a whole explosion of power thing, and kill everyone that is yokai related in my grief and not even realize it! That would kill me!”

The shuddering breath she took told them just how useless she felt. This might be the reason why she had no confidence in herself. A forced uselessness could kill some. She was strong to not give in. Shisui placed his hand on her shoulder, and when she looked at him, he could tell that she was screaming inside at how useless she felt. He could see Itachi's disturbed frown behind her, and knew he was hooked on her, and he knew that if Itachi wasn't so embroiled with clan issues, he probably would have volunteered right along side himself to teach the girl the things she needed to learn to survive in a world because she had the ability to, and not on sheer luck alone. No one should be forced into that kind of position and not be able to do anything to truly help.

He knew there was more to this though.


	4. Dance's Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see one of the basic movements needed of something Kagome will be able to master as a weapon later

Hiruzen looked completely disturbed at this revelation. This girl had a Will of Fire unlike anything he had seen before. He desperately wished he could help her. But he was unable to do much on his end. He let out an almost silent, slow sigh. He felt terrible for the girl. He would fill any requests for her that might help her. She damn well needed it. He knew most of his nin together couldn't stand up to what she had.

“It's so stupid! I am the only one in the entire group who can't fight, I am lucky if any of my arrows hit what I shoot at, because no one has taught me anything on how to use a bow, they just think that because I am the reincarnation of a bow-master miko that I will just magically hit everything I want. It doesn't work like that!”

Her voice had again grown loud with her frustration. Now tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. And she rubbed at them harshly to keep them from falling.

“And that's not even the tip of the iceberg. There is WAAAY more.”

All of them were solemn at her words. What kind of friends did this girl have? What kind of task did she need to do to keep her world safe?

Kagome suddenly got up, and went to her bag, and dug for a bit. She pulled out some black fabric, and what looked like white tights. 

“While we wait for food, I would like to calm down in case my powers flare like I mentioned before. I also need to use the bathroom. There is enough space for me to do what I need to here. It's not violent. You might enjoy watching, in fact.”

Hiruzen nodded, and before he could ask Itachi to bring her to the bathroom, Shisui stood up and approached her. “Let me Higurashi-san, this way.”

When they had left the room, Itachi looked at Hiruzen, and gave a quick report on what had happened during the mission they had been on the way back from when the felt a flare of power from the well.

It was quick. “The mission was successful. The target was silenced and all traces were erased as required. No information was leaked. We found the girl in an abandoned well on the way back to Konoha.”

“Excellent.”

Hiruzen handed Itachi the money from the mission knowing he'd split it with Shisui later.

“How are we going to do this?”

Hiruzen knew he was referring to housing and protecting Kagome until the well recharged. She could not stay at an Inn. It was only a matter of time before Danzo heard of her and tried to obtain her by force, despite his ruling.

“She will need to stay with both of you. Where you stay doesn't matter. This is a SS-Class Mission. There is a chance she may be able to return to this world. You should give her the real friends she needs. It may save her life. Let her meet Sasuke. He will be safe with her.”

Itachi knew all this already. He just required the orders from the Hokage. Hiruzen pulled out a scroll, and quickly wrote the mission on it, and gave it to Itachi. He hid it away in his sleeve, intending to share it with Shisui when they had a private moment.

Kagome and Shisui returned to the office at that moment. Itachi and Hiruzen turned to look at her. Their shock was easy for Shisui to see, but not for the distracted Kagome, who returned to her bag, and took out a hairbrush, then proceeded to put her hair up. 

Her figure was beautiful. She wasn't fat, or too skinny. She was healthy. She had long legs, well toned, and dainty feet. She was beautifully pale, and her hair ended just before her rear end, which was also smooth and well shaped. Her chest made her proportioned with the rest of her body. They both looked at Shisui, and he mouthed 'I know. Beautiful.' to them, and they nodded in return.

Once her hair was piled on her head to keep it from being caught, she then proceeded to pull out flat pink slippers that looked like they had been lengthened to include a pillowed toe. She put them on, and began tying the ribbons around her ankles to give them the support she would need. They watched her curiously. They figured she would dance, but that she knew a style they had never seen.

She then grabbed her now fully charged phone, and plugged in the little speaker. She selected a song to play. She had determined that she could plug in her electronics, and the plugs were the same.

'Arrival of the birds' Began to play. She stretched and warmed up. It only took a couple minutes. The instrumental started to build in volume and intensity, she started with little movements. Gentle spins, and the flexing of her hips and joints were noticeable. This kind of flexibility wasn't common here. Mostly martial arts moves. Arms raising with the swell of the music she stretched her leg straight up over her head, her toe pointed. 

She was standing on the ball of her foot, and as the music broke like the swell of a wave, she begun spinning, still on the ball of her foot. What they had seen was very beautiful, and graceful. It looked effortless. They knew different. She raised her leg exactly ninety degrees from her her body, and made exact quarter turns, her arms moving fluidly like water. She hooked her leg up behind her over her shoulder, and leaned back. 

Her flexibility was amazing. Then with the next rise in the music, she released her leg, and made a beautiful leap, legs wide and straight, arms arched back, and moved into a log roll, before rising onto her knees, her feet, the balls of her feet, and finally, onto her toes at the height of the swell, as though rising into being.

She then proceeded to dance on them. Fluttering across the room on her toes, then spinning on them and arcing her leg straight up, her torso falling forwards, arms spread back. She looked like a fairy. 

She then raised herself back into a position, before making quick, delicate steps that turned into a spin that morphed into a beautiful high jump that had them staring at her. She moved into several different poses, graceful, practiced, and with an ease that said she had been doing this from a very young age.

The last swell had her positioned in what seemed to be very difficult position balance wise, but she managed it the same way she managed the rest of her dance. On her toes, one leg straight in the air, she fell backwards, slowly, gently, back arched out, her hands holding her ankle.

She broke it as the music began to gently lower, and fell into a form on the floor, before spinning onto and from her knees, into a jump, straight into the air. Her back arched backwards, her arms stiff and straight, legs apart, before landing on her toes from the little jump.

She was constantly moving, from large jumps and leaps, and small graceful steps, and flexes, till finally the music tapered off into a gentle end. She curtsied lowly, her flexibility affording her such a bow. When she finished. She had a light sheen of sweat on her brow.

She was much better emotionally now. They could all tell that she felt better. She switched the music off, and held her phone with her, before making her way over to them.

“Thank you, I needed that. I'm sorry for getting frustrated before. I hadn't intended to get into any of that before talking about my task.”

Her head snapped to the wall where she watched another aura come up to the assistant's desk and pause there a moment, before the aura of his assistant came to the door. 

“Food's here.”

And sure enough, The assistant knocked on the door, before announcing that indeed the food had arrived.

Four bento were brought into the room and handed to the Hokage before the delivery boy bowed low. “Enjoy your evening Hokage-sama!”

“Thank you. Have a nice night.”

The food was handed off, and then distributed among the occupants of the room. It was a basic bento, rice, some slices of meat, vegetables, some sauces, pickled ginger, and something sweet for dessert. Drinks were distributed when asked for. All were highly amused as Kagome happily danced while eating. “It’s been so long since I had a real meal!~” She sang happily.

“Hey Itachi, when girls cry or get grouchy, feed ‘em, they’re just hungry-” Kagome whipped her head at him, watching him with a ‘watch what you say’ look on her face. “-cause then when you feed ‘em, they get all happy and smiley.” She was about to say aww, a smile already on her face, but then he added “And much cuter!”

Kagome sputtered, blushed, and hid her face from the room, face squarely in her bento. Hiruzen chuckled. He didn’t think he would ever see Shisui flirt with a girl, never mind this one. He guessed that the girl had to be really something in Shisui’s eyes. He chuckled again when he realized that Shisui would have stolen this mission from anyone not himself and Itachi had he assigned anyone else to it. Itachi looked at Shisui with a very slight twitch to his face. Shisui knew Itachi was twitching at how bad the last thing he said was. It was hit and miss with cheesy humor for Itachi. He saw Hiruzen finish his bento quickly, and started writing down more of what he knew of the girl and her story. This file was going to be known only to him. He continued to write until everyone had finished their meals, Kagome blushing again when Itachi reached over to pull a grain of rice off her cheek. Hiruzen smiled. This was one of the reasons he enjoyed being Hokage. Beyond the paperwork that is. It meant that people could be happy like these three were right now. He felt content with himself. 

When four empty bento boxes were closed and stacked, then removed from the room, Hiruzen looked up from his papers, having most of it finished. “Give me a moment, then we may continue. This has to be filled out for the current circumstance.” The two shinobi nodded, and Kagome blinked in question, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t give details, so she obviously wasn’t supposed to know, and thus, didn’t ask. Kagome fiddled with a game on her phone, and the boys watched her curiously, and even started trying to help her. Sliding blocks games were her favorite, and she was usually pretty good at them, but with Shisui and Itachi playing with her, she flew through levels. Holy shit these guys were good and fast! Eventually even they had a hard time with the levels as they got more complicated. They were on level 337, and she could see their brains playing with the puzzle the way hers had in the beginning before they started playing. Kagome found it interesting. She giggled, and looked up, both boys too into the little game to notice the Hokage watching them, having completed his paperwork. She smiled a secret smile at him, and mouthed ‘see something interesting?’

Hiruzen smiled. “Ah, Kagome-san, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to replicate that game for the shinobi here. A good brain teaser for them. Keep their minds sharp. Good exercise.” Both boys looked up at the Hokage. Kagome giggled. “The funniest part? I saw the answer a while ago.” And she made a few swipes and solved the puzzle. Shisui made a noise of surprise, and Itachi seemed put out, and pouted a while. Hiruzen gave her a wry grin.

“Well then, I must ask if it’s alright to record what you say on audio next since it will be far to much to remember off hand, so that I may record it later on paper. Do not fret, this file will be known only to me and you three. I will destroy the recording myself afterwards.” 

Kagome blinked and thought for a moment, then nodded. Hiruzen set up a tape recorder, and had asked his assistant to make sure he had lots of blank tapes. “Well, I was on my way to school on my fifteenth birthday, when I noticed my little brother at the well house. I thought he was trying to play there. I went to tell him to get out, when he told me the cat was inside the wellhouse. He was too scared to go in, and while I don’t blame him now, considering what happened next, I still called him a scaredy cat, and then did the good big sister thing and went into the wellhouse to get the cat. We had both heard scratching coming from inside, but the way it was built, sound bounces around funny in there, and you can’t tell where it’s coming from unless your either right in front of it, or can see what’s making the noise. We thought it was the cat. Until I picked up said cat, and the scratching noises continued from directly behind me. Inside the well. Before I even knew what was happening or could react, the lid on the well burst open, and I was grabbed and dragged down the well. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but the bone-eaters well got it’s name from all the demon remains that would disappear overnight inside the well. It wasn’t scavengers either, there would be signs all over the area the well was in. They were disappearing through a time slip. This demon had sensed a jewel that had been in my body since birth, and I didn’t even know it was there, it is called the Shikon no tama. The demon, well. Ne Shisui, Itachi, may I borrow your arms? Mine aren’t long enough to make an accurate show of how big around her body was.” 

All three exchanged looks. “Mistress Centipede looked like a normal human, naked from the hip up. When she opened her mouth enough, her face split into a huge mouth with mandibles inside from here, to here.” She pointed from one side of her jaw to the other. “From the hip down was a giant centipede…. And mind you this is just the body, not the legs included. Prepare to be disgusted.” And she then arranged Shisui and Itachi and herself so their arms wide open made a rough estimation of how big around she was. All three nin had their eyes wide. This thing was huge. This was her first demon?

“The worst part was that she not only had three sets of arms, but that her body was regenerating in the well, I could see the body re-growing rapidly on long-dead bone. The kind insects don’t even touch because there is nothing left. She even licked me. I didn’t know how big she really was at that point…”

She told of her stint through the well, discovering she was no longer on her shrine, the tree of ages, the boy pinned to the tree, molesting his ears- Shisui laughed, and noted that she liked cute things- and being brought to the village. She then told of how kind Kaede was and then about trying to figure out how to get home.

“And then just as we had finished our food, the alarm bell in the village started gong off and we could hear houses being demolished and screams echoing through the village. When we went out to check on what was going on, I couldn’t believe my eyes…. Hiruzen-san, may I have the back side to that paper please? And your pen.” As the items were handed over, Kagome began drawing. She drew several huts. “This image will be forever burned in my memory. It still gives me nightmares.” Once she had drawn the huts to the best of her ability, she then drew several arcs over the village, ten in total, high above the village, she began to draw the centipede body it represented with legs everywhere, and Mistress Centipede at the end of it, blood on her mouth, staring at her. “I found out later that she was considered a really weak demon. Like squashing a lone beetle on the ground.”

“She had just taken a huge bite out of a horse, and swallowed it, before tossing it right at us.” All three nin stared at shock at what she had drawn. This was her first demon?! What kind of task did she have to do to face demons like this and stronger all the time?

Hiruzen looked at the picture in shock. She broke the silence, knowing she had to continue or they would be there all night. “I remember her charging at me, wanting the jewel, and that I didn’t think it was fair for innocent people to die because she was after me. Lady Kaede had mentioned that we needed to being her back to the well I had climbed out of, and I remember asking directions before running in that direction. I knew she was after me, so I lured her away from the village and ran as fast as I could. I was so very scared. I was positive, and this was confirmed afterwards, that she wanted to eat me alive.”

She told of the fight against Mistress Centipede, the jewel being torn out of her side- and she got up and showed them the huge scar just below her rib cage, and pointed out the difference between the mandible scars, and the tear of the Shikon no Tama in her skin. She described the transformation of the demon, and how disgusting it was, and grossed them out, specifically at “And then her skin just fell off, like schlorp.” The releasing of Inu Yasha from a powerful sealing spell, which Kagome didn’t even know was there until the arrow had disintegrated in her hand. The recovery of the jewel from the demon’s body, then the run from Inu Yasha who was after the jewel, Kaede’s subjugation beads, and setting the sit command- the description of how this worked and it’s reaction gained chuckles from the occupants of the room- and then being told by Kaede to try jumping in the well again to go home. Being kidnapped by bandits and almost raped, how their leader was dead and had a carrion crow demon puppeting the corpse from where it’s heart should be, and how it stopped her from being raped because it was too impatient to get the Shikon no Tama.

She spoke of her regret in throwing the jewel away from her not wanting to deal with it, and not understanding or believing the myths around it, and how it was the biggest mistake of her life so far, and how many deaths and how much suffering that little thing has caused. She told of the carrion crow getting the Shikon no Tama. She spoke of Inu Yasha’s belief, with a dry sarcastic face, of how he claimed that because she was Kikyo’s reincarnation that she should know archery and be a master archer, and then how badly that failed.

She told of how the jewel was shattered by her arrow. She didn’t need to say that she had been yelled at and belittled by Inu Yasha. It was obvious by the look on her face.

Hiruzen paused then, noting the late hour. “Kagome-san, Shall we pause here? You seem both distressed and tired. I believe continuing tomorrow would not be a bad idea.”

She looked really tired, and exhausted. Kagome wondered how late it was. The two shinobi beside her looked like they were just getting tired. She couldn’t tell for Hiruzen. He rubbed his nose. “I think I will be writing all this down all day and maybe the next day. Kagome-san, I have already assigned these two to protect you since they really seem to like you. They will work out sleeping arrangements. They know what would work best. We will help you as best as we can to get you back home. If Konoha could aid you more, it would. Your task is monumental. What you have faced already is more than any shinobi of my village ever has. Take this chance and relax. Perhaps, if Itachi and Shisui are willing, they can coach you on some basic combat and training in your weapons of choice. It is very late, near two in the morning. We all should get to our beds. Arrange what you must and go. I want daily reports. Communicate to me through them Kagome-san.”

Kagome understood. She was dead tired. She collected her things, and made her backpack ready to go.


	5. Surprise Snuggles and Buns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both boys learn very quickly that Kagome likes to be warm

They were dismissed, and had left the Hokage’s office. Shisui picked up Kagome, and then with Itachi, headed for the Uchiha District. They spoke so Kagome could hear. “If she stays in my home, Father will want to know about her. It’s too dangerous.” 

“Ah, I agree. She will stay at my place. My mother is not a nin, she married into the clan after her and father fell in love, and father is too ill to get out of bed, never mind notice that I have someone in my room for tonight. We will work out something better tomorrow. Kagome, you must not leave my room. We have to find a secure location for you to stay at night. For now you are safe in my room. I will help you to the bathroom as you need, and bring you food. It should only be for the night and morning anyways.”

Kagome nodded, too tired to argue. “Itachi, you need to stay at my place too. Tell your family your on another mission, an internal one, and you can’t talk or stay with them. Sneak Sasuke to us and let us visit. Keep him with us as much as possible, bring him home only when he is tired, and bring him after the Academy. Once we have a secure location, then she can meet others. Agreed?”

Itachi nodded solemnly, but his aura was happy as he leaped away to his home. “Itachi is happy now. That’s what you intended isn’t it?”

“Yes, Itachi has been through war as a little boy. He was seven I believe.” Kagome’s shocked gasp and horrified look made him sigh. “I know. It’s our dream to have peace so that children don’t have to fight in wars.” Kagome nodded her head, sad now. “So, how’s this going to work? There is obviously only one bed, and I have a sleeping bag.” 

“Ah, this may be a bit embarrassing, but it would be best if you slept with one of us every night, ANBU can sneak in and silently kill a target if they are alone in a bed. Harder to not be sensed when they are with someone else. Don’t worry, I only cuddle, I don’t grope girls at all. Itachi will be there shortly after we arrive. He will guard the window. We will most likely take turns staying up at night. Sleeper is with you.” The unsaid message of ‘there are people who would try to kill you’ was read loud and clear. She knew then that there was someone who had power, and ruled from the shadows of this ‘Village’.

Kagome’s face was bright red, but she understood why it had to be this way. She nodded, and hid her face in Shisui’s chest. He was wearing her bag overtop of his, and her bow and quiver had been sealed into one of their scrolls. Kagome was amazed at that. That would be so handy…

They made it to Shisui’s house, and he slipped silently into the window of his bedroom after disarming the traps on it. He left it open for Itachi, and let her down, then gave her her bag. She dug through it for pajamas. It was a baggy nightgown, and pants that matched. Shisui went to his dresser and pulled out some of his own pajamas. “We will keep our backs turned to the other until we both call out being done. Sound fair?” Kagome was too tired to care about him peeking at this point. She nodded, and turned away from him. He took a few steps away and turned away from her. Both changed quickly so Itachi wouldn’t catch them mid-change.

Once finished, and both had called out to the other, Kagome asked if she could brush her teeth, and he shook his head. “Not tonight, in the morning, yes, while your in the bathroom, them we will look for a more secure place to guard you at night in.”

She sighed and nodded her understanding. She pulled out her hairbrush instead and began de-knotting the long strands. Itachi arrived right then. He shut and armed the window. He opened the small overnight bag on his shoulder and when he pulled out clothes, both the other occupants of the room turned their heads so he could change. Kagome french braided her hair tightly. Then yawned. She dug in her bag again, and offered Itachi her sleeping bag. He could at least be comfy while he did guard duty.

Shisui opened up his bed’s coverings and slipped in, holding it open for Kagome to get in beside him. When she did with a very red face, and two highly amused nins, Shisui then threw his arm around her, and began to let sleep take him. Kagome tried her best, and it took her a few minutes, but she did eventually fall asleep. Itachi watched them for a while, then turned his attention to the window and guarding it, spreading his awareness. Sitting on her sleeping bag. 

‘She is very kind.’

* * *

  
Itachi watched them shift throughout the night. He smiled when Kagome rolled to face Shisui, both laying face to face, since Kagome was sharing his pillow. He silently stood up, and climbed the wall a few steps to see if his hunch was correct, and smiled to see that it was. He was going to tease them tomorrow for this. He returned silently to his post, even more amused to see Kagome shift later to throw her leg over Shisui’s. For once he could tease his cousin. He wished he could take a picture. He burned it into his head however, and if he ever got it, would use Mangekyo on him later to show him.

His vigil wouldn’t take long, he hoped. He was very tired already. If Kagome and Shisui were willing, he’d like to have a nap when Shisui got up.

* * *

Shisui woke with dawn as his training had programed his body to do. It was 7 am. A good chunk of sleep. He could function well today, and get a better sleep tomorrow night, as long as he napped a little before Itachi and Kagome went to bed. He felt something on his lips, and breath on his face, and opened his eyes. Memories from yesterday appeared in his head and he blinked sleepily. He then realized that his lips were touching hers. They were both sleeping. And he was practically kissing her. His face reddened, and he slowly pulled back from her lips, to make sure she didn’t wake up to him kissing her.

‘Wow her lips are soft. Why does she think she isn’t pretty? Hell if she lived here, I’d be dating her.’

He heard a small shifting, and he leaned up slowly and saw Itachi standing, laughing at him. His face got redder, before he grinned at Itachi and mouthed ‘Her lips are super soft. You should try it yourself.’ Itachi raised his brows, and gave him an ‘as if’ face, but Shisui could see his ears turning red. He thought she was pretty too. Hm, this would be interesting. Both wished the well would allow them to pass with her when it recharged.

Itachi signaled to Shisui that he needed to sleep. Shisui nodded. ‘Trade places?’ Itachi nodded. Shisui signaled to him to help untangle her from him so he could get up, and that he had to use the bathroom. Itachi sighed, and went to move her leg off him, and he her arm, before they switched places. Now Itachi was tangled in little Kagome. The difference was that he made sure to slant the pillow at an angle so he was higher up than she was on the bed, and instead, they were face to chest. Itachi waited for Shisui to come back from the bathroom, speak to his mother, and then say he was still tired and would most likely be sleeping a good portion of the morning. He could hear the conversation through the floor. Shisui finally came back, and dropped the tired act, and took guard by the window. It was Shisui’s turn to laugh at Itachi when he watched Kagome snuggle closer to him, her grunt of dissatisfaction clear in the room as she tucked her head right under his chin. He could feel her slow even breaths on his chest, her mouth being right at the collar, and puffing under his pajama top. His face reddened, and he couldn’t stop it either. Shisui’s happy giggle was quiet and barely heard. He was muffling it to not disturb Kagome, or arouse his mother’s suspicion. 

Shisui wouldn’t stop watching him in amusement, and Itachi huffed silently, before shutting his eyes, ignoring Shisui, and the reaction that having Kagome as close as she was had on his body, and meditated himself to sleep. Shisui wouldn’t let Itachi live this down. He was telling Sasuke. He grinned. He thought he was the cuddler. Turns out he was Kagome’s personal teddy bear, and she had two for the duration of her stay. Maybe he could make that three if he could convince Mikoto to let Sasuke have a sleepover. He was sure she’d love the girl. But not Fugaku. He’d try to use Kagome and find out about her. Perhaps he could set up a picnic date for them to meet while Fugaku was working at the police force? Hokage first though. He wouldn’t mind having Kagome to themselves for a while first.

He settled down and went through everything Kagome had told them so far. He thought she was amazing. He hoped he could help her. He sent up a prayer to the Kami to be allowed to help her, and then continued cataloging everything she had revealed so far. He finished two hours later, just as Kagome stirred from her sleep. Her quiet ‘Huh?’ alerting him to the fact that she didn’t understand what was going on yet. He quietly darted forward, not wanting to disturb Itachi yet, and covered her mouth. “Shhh, it’s okay, it’s us, remember?”

Kagome’s eyes widened for a moment in fear, before he saw her memories from yesterday resurface, and relief shone in them for a moment, before confusion came clear through, and she looked at what she could see of Itachi, the open collar of his pajama shirt, collar bones and a little of his chest, before it disappeared under the fabric that hid it. He made obvious gestures to tell her what happened. He was pleased when understanding shone in her eyes. Then he could see that she was mumbling about something. He caught ‘friggin ninja’ in there somewhere and grinned. She was complaining about her not sensing the change. He motioned to her to catch her attention, and she turned over on her side. He stopped her from getting out of the bed. He got down and whispered in her ear. 

“Do you mind staying in the bed for a while longer? Itachi switched places with me not long ago, and he’s really tired. You getting up will wake him, and he will try to power through the day. I can get you to the bathroom, but you have to be silent. Luckily, mom is in the garden right now. Do you mind staying in bed for another hour?” Kagome shook her head, and grabbed his shirt to pull his ear to her mouth. “I don’t mind, but I want my phone from the charge pad please. I am gonna at least amuse myself. Oh and my headphones. If we can find a way, we can play more sliding blocks, or maybe I can show you how to do english word searches.” He grinned and pulled away so she could see it, and nodded. A quick teleportation jutsu later and she was in the bathroom, he on the other side of the door, standing so his feet were directly on the other side of the gap of the door keeping it off the floor. 

He didn’t know it until he had witnessed it, but her stealth already was no joke. Having to avoid super sensitive ears and noses to escape demons and live made you learn quick. She was super silent, and the only thing he could hear were the noises she hadn’t figured out how to silence yet. There wern’t many. It was a few minutes before he finally felt her poke his feet with her fingers under the door to let him know she was done. She backed away, he silently opened the door, and teleported them back to the bed, and she cuddled up to Itachi like she had before, turned away of course. Shisui brought her phone over and sat in front of her. She sat the phone on the edge of the bed, and set up the sliding game. Both played for about twenty minutes, got bored and then Kagome showed him the word searches. They were interrupted momentarily when Itachi grunted, pulled Kagome to him, and stuck his nose in her hair. She almost screamed, nevermind how much she near jumped out of her skin in surprise.

She could feel the puffs of his breath across her scalp, and his arm was firm, and tucked under her. She sagged in relief. Shisui was laying on the floor laughing silently. Life was so much more interesting with Kagome around. Her face was red, and she peeked through her fingers at him. She didn’t know until she was this close to him, but Itachi’s light snores made her relax, her face less red. She lowered her hands, and smiled. She motioned to Itachi, and the mouthed ‘He’s snoring! It’s adorable!’ He could see her basically squealing silently at how cute she thought that was.

He smiled, a real smile. She didn’t realize how adorable she looked at all.

His smile made him handsome, and she stared at him before a flush over took her face and she turned over to face Itachi. She hoped he hadn’t noticed her attraction. But he had. His smile turned smug.

* * *

Kagome and Shisui had spent another twenty minutes in bed, completely lost in the word searches. She explained what each word meant and how to pronounce them. At one point, he brought over a piece of paper and a pencil and she decided to show him something he might find useful. She wrote out the alphabet, and told him about upper case and lower case. She went through the alphabet once, only saying them, she didn’t show them to him when she was saying them.

“Okay, so, I want you to recite the alphabet I just told you in order. No paper. I’m showing you how some things can be memorized, especially by children much easier with music. The human brain is hardwired for it. If you have to remember or memorize something quickly, put it to the most annoying, catchy tune you can think of. You’ll never forget it. We’ve had studies done on Alzheimer's and Dementia, and music perks them right up, they almost become themselves when they hear music they loved and grew up with. So tell me the alphabet I just told you.”

Shisui frowned and repeated most of the alphabet no problem. He messed up the pronunciation of some of it, and Kagome made a note to teach him how to make the ‘L’ noise. He was pronouncing it ‘R’. He almost got it too. Shinobi memories were really good. They most likely had to be. “Alright, so now I am gonna hum a tune. It should be super easy to remember.” She didn’t sing the alphabet in her head when she hummed it. She sang tinkle twinkle little star. Same tune, different words. “Repeat it.” He was impressed when he nailed the whole thing perfectly in one go. Kagome just smiled. 

“Try the alphabet again.” Shisui did worse this time. He forgot a quarter of them, and mispronounced more. “Alright so here is my point. Repeat this back to me when I am done it.” And she sang the ABC’s softly to him, as they had been speaking the entire time to keep Itachi from waking. 

Shisui nailed the whole thing easily. Kagome then sang twinkle twinkle little star to him, then baa baa black sheep, and had him repeat those, and he was able to with no trouble. She then asked for all three songs, and he realized that this was a very effective method of teaching. Instead of boring repetitive droning, something fun and cheerful, taking advantage of an innate ability all humans had and honing it from a young age was highly useful. “It greatly boosts brain activity too. Singing tends to make people happy. You can influence a lot with music, and all the different kinds. Have someone who needs anger management? Play music that reminds one of the ocean, or stuff that allows you to maintain a trance or concentration when your doing something. Sad? Play songs that not only sound happy, but talk about being happy. Avoid love though. Feeling fancy? Some classical strings are a good idea.” She handed him the paper then so he could see the difference between the aforementioned uppercase and lowercase.

Shisui was impressed. He wanted to do more word search now. Kagome had sparked his love of learning. And it was all things that were interesting. They searched for another ten minutes before Itachi made an unsatisfied noise, as Kagome had moved away from him again, and pulled her back against him. This time trapping her there. Kagome pouted, then asked for her headset, and used her phone to play music quietly while she waited for Itachi to be finished sleeping while Shisui played more word search on his own, changing the song when she wanted something different, or didn’t feel like listening to that song.

Itachi’s lips quirked behind her, wondering if she would pick up on his wakefulness. Kagome’s stomach protesting made him take notice of her. “I hope he wakes soon, I’m really hungry.” She said softly. Shisui blushed. She was so interesting, he’d forgotten to feed her. Itachi felt bad. They had to go find a place to keep Kagome safe at anyways. Shisui only had a couple ideas. They would need more options if they were to stay hidden. They needed to change hideouts once a week. It was a good thing her bag held everything she had. For now, since Kagome still had her story to explain and tell, Shisui thought the attic above the Hokage’s office in the tower would be fine. He would have to confirm with the Hokage first however, and have some seals put into the room to soundproof it. Kagome couldn’t be sneaky all the time. Her stories with her propensity to trip and fall on just about anything when she wasn’t dancing or fighting made for and interesting combination of grace and awkwardness. He’d laughed several times at her last night, cheeks blazing red while she told the story of roots she swore moved just to trip only her. Best to have sound seals that can be moved around from each space they would take up for a week, incase she did trip, and become reacquainted with the ground.

Kagome almost had a panic attack when Itachi rolled them both so he was on the outside edge of the bed, pulling her under, with himself over, before he sat up and teleported to the bathroom. She was left on her back, shocked for a moment before her face colored red and turned to Shisui who had a grin on his face. “Did he- did he just..” She slowly sat up herself. Shisui nodded. He helped her stand up, and he brought her bag to her. She pulled out some clothes and a granola bar She munched on one, and turned her back when she saw him pull out clothes. 

Honestly, Shisui didn’t really care if she saw him or not. He got dressed and tapped her shoulder. She looked at him, and looked at her own clothes, then the door. Translation. ‘Itachi might come back while I am changing.’ He nodded, and stood outside his door, his feet really close to the gap at the bottom of the door for poking. Itachi left the bathroom silently and Shisui signed that Kagome was changing when he gained Itachi’s attention. ‘How will you know when she is done?’

Shisui pointed to the gap in the door above the floor. ‘Watch.’ Shisui signed back. After a couple more minutes, Itachi saw her fingers poke the back of Shisui’s feet. ‘That’s smart’ He signed back. Shisui grinned. ‘She thought of it.’ Shisui saw Itachi’s surprise quickly move his eyebrows towards his hair, slightly. He opened the door, and stepped into the room. She already had everything gathered, and Shisui repacked his backpack for this mission. At least he was close to home. Both could pick up changes of clothes and items for what was needed during their mission. Both noticed that Kagome was back to wearing her sweater dress and jeans with crocs. Shisui singed that Itachi should go pack for this mission as well, Shisui would bring her for something to eat, a big brunch, make sure she was full until dinner that night. Itachi opened the window and left, heading to his house to pack for this mission, and restock his Shinobi supplies. He’d left the pay from last night’s mission on Shisui’s dresser. He knew that Shisui would grab something for him too.

Once he was done packing, Kagome held her bag awkwardly. “How are we gonna carry all that?” She whispered quietly to him. “I am gonna put it into a sealing scroll until we get to the Hokage office. I think the first place we will hide is in the attic above his office so not only is it close to him during the day, but it’s easy to relay information. We can even leave his office for break if you’d like. I’m sure the Hokage would love to astound his assistants by disappearing for lunch or dinner.” He grinned. Kagome snickered quietly into her hand. “All that poor paperwork! So neglected!” Shisui sealed her bag into a scroll, and picked her up. Itachi had left his window open. “Ma, this might be a little weird. I have to close my window and lock it. Which means I need my hands, so I’m gonna stick you on my hip the way a kid rides a parent, alright? You won’t fall.” Kagome blinked and then blushed. She’d never blushed so often in her life! She hid her face in his shirt and he grinned while he worked around her. It was only a second or so when she heard the window slide shit quietly, and the lock click into place. Then he picked her back up the way he had before, and headed to a stand that served a good brunch spread, since he couldn’t make anything. “Ano, I can cook, and can make a lot of instant stuff, I have camping equipment.” Shisui thought buying an electric kettle wouldn’t be a bad idea. Lots of things could be made ready to eat by adding hot water to them. They’d be eating a lot of bento too.

“Well, we will have to live off of bought food unless Mikoto-san doesn’t mind making us all food. She should be safe to introduce you too, especially with Sasuke. But that won’t be for a little bit. We have to finish your story. I’m absolutely enthralled with it. It’s hard to believe someone like you has gone through so much. Personally, if I could help, I would. It’s got to be really hard to be called all the things that Inu Yasha person calls you. You don’t deserve it. I’m sorry you have to deal with that.”

Kagome looked at him. She felt like he understood her. Yet she hadn’t said a thing about the things he calls her all the time. “How did you know he says so many mean things to me all the time?” Shisui smiled sadly. “The way you respond, and the way you dress. Your beautiful. I don’t know why you hide. Does he still call you someone else?” He watched her face turn sad and dull. There was his answer. “I see. Well, I hope what I am thinking for breakfast cheers you up! You like steamed bao right?” She nodded and he stopped near Amaguriama. They had lots of different kinds of sweets, and Kagome just looked at Shisui. “Dessert? For breakfast?” He put her down, and moved to the counter. “You have bao still right? You still make the pork ones for breakfast and lunch?” The woman behind the counter nodded, and her husband came forward with a steamer fresh off the pot. “We just finished making a few batches of both. Your choice, super fresh!” “We are going to take fifteen, and some dango. Breakfast for like three people. Half sweet bean half pork please!” Shisui saw Kagome eying all the different sweets, and stop on the ichigo daifuku mochi, and then the momiji manju. He motioned to the shopkeep and ordered the two sweets quietly to surprise Kagome later. He then grabbed some drinks from a corner store, having Kagome select three for herself.

His asked for it to be bagged since they had to go to the Hokage’s office afterwards. They left the stand, and headed to the Hokage’s office. They met up with Itachi there, who had already told them of their arrival. 


	6. Setting Up Base....For Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome is finally done with her story, and finally allowed out to do things!

Shisui handed out the buns, more of the pork ones for Kagome who felt that eating a sweet bean bun was a bit much to have for sweets in the day, and Itachi having more of the sweet buns. He had both. They were called in while eating them, and Hiruzen smiled at the three teens. Kagome offered him one, and he accepted. A snack wouldn’t hurt lunch…

“Ah, good morning Hokage Sama, sorry we are later than we thought we would be. We all wanted to be rested for today.” Hiruzen nodded. These two had essentially been sent on back to back missions. They needed some recuperation time. “Your all fine. I’m just taking appointments from yesterday and paperwork anyways.” He raised the barriers, and watched Kagome shiver at the sensation. She must be really sensitive if it affected her that much. He found her amusing when she put her third bun down and started rubbing her arms. “Jeez, you think I’d be prepared after feeling it yesterday!” Shisui grinned.

“So Kagome, any ghosts nearby?”

“Eh… well there was this silver haired guy. He had a mask on and his hair stuck straight up. There is a girl a little younger than him following him around. She looked worried. His aura said he wouldn’t like anything I have to say though, so I don’t think I can help him.” She said sadly. The after that, she pulled a 180. “Beyond that, just you!”

Itachi’s lips quirked, and Shisui blinked before laughing. Hiruzen gave a chuckle. This girl was like sunshine impersonated. She grinned, happy that her efforts to make others happy hadn’t backfired in her face for once. Why did she feel that this was worlds better than when she was with Inu Yasha? She was supposed to love him right? She blinked away the thoughts and focused on eating her bao. It was delicious! Hiruzen set up the voice recorder once again. He made sure there were lot of tapes and set a timer for how long each tape had before flipping the sides. Then he set out some paper, pencils, erasers and a sharpener for Kagome if she needed to draw. “Hokage-sama, Kagome showed me something this morning. I’d like her to show Itachi and you both. Can you show them the music thing you showed me?”

Kagome brightened up. She launched into and explanation on music, and how the human brain is hardwired for it, the studies done in her world, and then the trick she showed Shisui to remember things that would normally take time and repetition to remember. She had both Itachi repeat the same things she had Shisui do an hour before. Both were impressed. “We use this on little kids, and it works wonderfully. There are T.V.’s here right? We have programming that is bright and colorful, with basics in them, learning to deal with your emotions in a way that is healthy, how to share, dealing with separation anxiety, basic building blocks of education, so like animal noises, colors, shapes, somethings that would be difficult concepts to certain ages, like babies learning the difference between in and out, and it becomes more complex for different age groups of kids, different levels of education. You could say that while traditional education in a classroom doesn’t start till the kids are four, we technically start education from as old as less than a year. It covers everything, and it’s stuff parents have to participate in. I still remember things Souta used to watch. God, him and friggin Barney!”

She made a screwed up face saying she not only found what she was talking about annoying, but she also no longer liked it. “All I heard for the first four years of Souta’s life was ‘Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination, and when he's tall he's what we call a dinosaur sensation. Barney's friends are big and small, they come from lots of places, after school they meet to play and sing with happy faces. Barney shows us lots of things like how to play pretend, ABC's, and 123's And how to be a friend. Barney comes to play with us whenever we may need him, Barney can be your friend too if you just make-believe him.’ I hate that stupid show now! But it did teach Souta about all sorts of things. Even if he was the most horrific shade of purple with green spots. And what dinosaur has a solid tooth per jaw?” Hiruzen was amused. 

“If I get the chance, I will use the songs that the kids shows now use. I think they are way less annoying, and they use songs to help teach lessons. The best ones I’ve heard so far are ‘When something seems bad, turn it around, and find something good!’ ‘When you feel so mad that you wanna roar, take a deep breath, and count to four!’ and ‘We like different things, and that’s just fine, but remember to be kind!’ God I never thought the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood stuff would actually be useful by anyone except kids. Until I went to the past. Any idea how many times I had to use ‘Before you take something away, stop and ask if it’s okay!’ ‘In some ways we are different, but in so many ways, we are the same!’ ‘Think about what someone else is feeling, think about what someone else feels, maybe you can help them feel better.’ I’d be rich if I got paid five yen every time I sang a lesson song in the Sengoku Jidai. I swear, they are all children!” She pouted and finished her bao, then downed the rest of her drink. Itachi nodded. Shisui tried not to laugh with food in his mouth.

“Alright then. Shall we continue? You left off at the crow’s head attacking you with a fragment of the jewel keeping it alive.” It was half past noon already. She had arrived at three pm yesterday. He was hoping now that her explanations were out of the way, the rest of the story would go quicker and smoother.

“Ah, yes… so next… Well, I waited until the next day to try to go home again, I mean that was a lot, and I was in shock as to what I had just done. That was when Kaede explained to both me and Inu Yasha that we now had a great task ahead of us to do. I bet you can guess huh? Here’s a hint. I can see not only the jewel, but the shards, and if I am close enough to them, their direction.”

Hiruzen’s eyes widened. “So that is why you are with him. I understand now. You don’t have a choice.” Kagome willed the tears away. “No, I don’t. The jewel is evil and sentient. It wants to destroy the world. The only way to destroy it is to collect and complete it, then wish it away with a selfless wish. I’ve come to realize since then that there is no such thing as a selfless wish. The very definition of a wish is something you desire to happen, in any small way. So it’s destruction would be a conundrum. I have to collect all the shards and stop Naraku. My world, and the future depends on it. I have no choice.” Kagome looked at her lap sadly, like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. In a way, her world was. This was indeed a heavy burden to bear, and she had to bear it. Kagome sighed and forged on.

“The next day I was attempting to go home. I actually made it to the well this time, but of course more has to happen to me before I am allowed to go home.” She then fast forwarded the stories, since the basics of the beginning of her adventure was explained, they would understand the rest of it told quickly. Yura of the hair, returning home for a day, Sesshomaru, Tessaiga and their father’s tomb. The size of the skeleton, almost dying for the fifteenth time in five days, returning home for a few more days to catch up with school, then realizing that she would be doing this for a long time, and sitting down with her Mom to figure out what to do, since her attendance would be shot to hell.

“Me and mom came up with fibromyalgia. It’s a disease that causes chronic pain all over the body, and it lasts for the rest of your life. So my mom and I have decided that I would just have a lot of ‘bad pain days’ and not be able to come into school. We arranged a correspondence system. I would complete not only the classwork, but some make up to make sure I learned the lessons I couldn’t be in class for, like science labs. The teachers make videos of anything I need to know, like guest speakers that come in to talk to the class or the school. I do large packages of homework, and use the textbooks to learn entirely, hand them in, and get a new package with the next few weeks to a month of work to work on myself outside the classroom. It helps that I have read my textbooks out of boredom when I run out of homework and read all my favorite books, and just fill my work book. The teacher have had to come up with other material to learn. I am technically ahead now, in everything but math. I am just keeping up. It’s a pain in the ass. I hate math. It’s quadratics I’m having a hard time with. There is a time discrepancy between the feudal era and my time. I will spend three weeks there, and only a week will pass in my time, so I have three times as long to do everything, which is needed, I mean, I have to have time to fight and look for shards, so…”

She then told them about the toad demon in possession of a prince and almost getting stuck in a egg sac herself. The samurai that kidnapped her for a few hours, wanting to ‘have fun’ with her, before Inu Yasha came in and stopped them from undressing her. She had fought so hard to keep them from touching her. She needed few minutes to collect herself from that one. “The past is a truly terrifying era. So much could happen to someone.”

Meeting Shippo and killing the Thunder Brothers, who wanted to turn her into a hair potion, the spider head demons and Inu Yasha’s weakness on the night of the new moon, the Noh mask in her time. And how it almost got her, but Inu Yasha managed to kill it before it could eat her. The bandits who tried to take her shards, but were too scared of Inu Yasha waving his giant sword around. They were at forty eight almost deaths. In three months. Shinobi didn’t even have that many almost deaths in half a year. 

They took a break then for some water and for some wind down from the topic. It was three pm now. The nin in the room were flabbergasted. And this all within the first three months of her task? Hiruzen grew more impressed, and then awed at her. This girl had the strongest Will of Fire he had ever seen. If the Second could have met her, he was sure he would have not only do as he was, but would most likely be interested in her himself. He was sure she wasn’t done yet. They stopped counting at that too. They knew that there would be much worse to come, as Kagome had pulled out her portion of the sacred jewel. So much was missing from it. Hiruzen shook his head.

“I am so sorry that you have to go through this. If this were something in this world, all of Konoha would have worked together to bring back the shards as soon as it had been shattered, mitigating a lot of this. The fact that there is nothing but you, untrained and trying as best as you can to learn your powers, an Inu Hanyo, and a small Fox-kit says so very much. Your strength is astounding!”

Kagome gave a strained smile. When they started up, the next tale was told slowly, lowly, as though she found it hard. They noticed how sad she had become. She told them of Urasue and her revival of her incarnate Kikyo. The puzzle pieces clicked, and all three nin had looks of grave solemnity. Hiruzen was floored, and horrified in equal parts. She was running on only two thirds of her soul?! Itachi and Shisui felt their respect for her climb, and Shisui wanted to hug her with how hard this was to get out. He was hoping the well would allow her, and maybe even one of them through so they could help her. She wasn’t a shinobi and yet she had seen more than most of the seasoned ones, and she was only almost sixteen! She was allowed a minute, and the Hiruzen shook himself of the shock as did the other Shinobi. Itachi scooted his chair closer to hers, offering silent comfort and support. Kagome smiled at it. Shisui moved his chair beside and a little behind, turned it backwards, and rested his chin on her shoulder in his own way of comforting her. When she gave him a curious look, he gave her a goofy grin and she giggled. Hiruzen gave Shisui a nod of thanks. She needed the distraction. She had a hard time, but Kagome told them about how Inu Yasha doesn’t see her as Kagome, but as a replacement and cheap copy of Kikyo.

“He doesn’t even realize how much it hurts to have Kikyo nearby. It feels like I am being pulled in different directions, and it’s painful, like I am being torn in two! Wanting to reclaim the rest of my soul, but I also don’t, because Inu Yasha deserves to have closure from her so he can finally move on. He loves her so much. I don’t want to be the reason he doesn’t get that. He’s been alone all his life because he is Hanyo. Humans fear him for his demon blood, and demons hate him for his human blood. He has been lonely for so long. He’s over two hundred years you know. Kikyo was the first person to not hate him for what he is, she was his first friend.”

The way she tried to hide the broken look on her face, and not cry.. It almost broke their hearts. Her kindness made them see just how strong her heart was, her will and determination to see her task through. She wore her heart on her sleeve, no matter how many times she got hurt. She still put it out again and again. The shinobi in the room felt awe at her strength. At this point, Shisui knew she needed a small breather. He pulled out the sweets he had bought earlier, and handed them out. Kagome’s look of desperate gratitude told him that this was the right decision. They also had a bathroom break, and then re situated themselves. Kagome had stretched and did her body maintenance while she waited for everyone to finish their business. She would have to do a day of just dancing to catch up to what she was missing.

“Before we start again, I wanted to show you a bit about Ballet. The dance I do, and why it’s something you really have to dedicate yourself to if you want to be good at it.” She pulled her slipper off one foot, and stood. “We don’t dance on the balls of our feet at all. We literally dance on our toes. My feet like to try to turn out a little without slippers on. All dancers have something their feet do without the slippers. The slippers are all made individually to suit our needs. It corrects the things our feet do when supporting our weight on our toes so we don’t hurt ourselves. See? On our toes!” And she rose up en point, and performed what she called a Bourree. Three sets of eyebrows rose into their respective hairlines. She put the slipper back on, and performed an Arabesque. She gave a mock bow and giggled a little before sitting down.

Twenty minutes later they all were ready to continue where she left off. Shisui wouldn’t leave his position directly beside her, and Itachi sat a little closer.

“Don’t worry, this part is a little happier. You get to finally meet Miroku the lecherous Monk and his cursed hands. Oh, and Hatchi, the cute Tanuki Merchant. He’s a sweetheart. A very nice Yokai, and a good business man. We didn’t know it, but this encounter started at a hotspring that was very large with lots of boulders and lots of little inlets and deep curves. I didn’t know Miroku was there when I was using it. He saw me with the chunk of the Jewel hanging from my neck…”

She told them of him kidnapping her on her bike, then tossing aside after she screamed at him. She explained the curse of the black hole on his hand, and then how it was passed down the generations, and how it worked, and what would be needed to rid of it. All three nin felt more and more need for this Naraku character to be eliminated. He was obviously a menace. His name had popped up more than once by now, and how he had manipulated others into doing his dirty work, and tortured his victims. All were horrified at what he had done. She told of how she managed to get Miroku to close his Wind Tunnel and not suck up Inu Yasha, and then about his second curse, and it’s encounter with her behind, and her hiding behind Inu Yasha. Kagome could feel the amusement rolling off Hiruzen’s aura. She was not amused. Shisui seemed neutral, and Itachi felt annoyed. 

“Ne Hiruzen-sama? Put yourself in my shoes. You wouldn’t want to be fondled by another man would you?” His immediate green face said enough, never mind the disgust in his aura. “I thought not. His actions are not good ones. We all know he is up to something when he begins to mediate petty problems.”

Shisui snickered. “Well, if we get the chance to meet him we will guard your behind as well!” Itachi nodded seriously beside her and she snickered at how serious he felt about it. Itachi was adorable. No wonder Shisui liked him so much. Kagome continued. She told them of how Miroku seemed to want to go out on his own, and how going after the hell painter made him join their group, and her constant need to avoid and watch his hands. She also described how gross the hell painter was.

“His ink was made from the blood of the victims that his paintings had devoured! He tried to force a Lord to give him his daughter in return for not destroying his home. The lord had hired us to watch over his daughter and protect her while she slept. Miroku of course tried to get us to leave him alone with her. That didn’t happen. Perv. We found out that there was a jewel shard in the Hell Painter’s ink pot. Miroku realized that to gather the shards he would need Inu Yasha’s strength, and that my ability to see and sense the shards was much better than his own. Once we had managed to tell him about the shattering of the jewel he decided to help me. Not Inu Yasha. ‘It would be a sin not to help a fair maiden in need on her lonely quest!’ That lecher was only trying to get lucky. I shut him down so quick… that does not mean he doesn’t continue to try every once in a while.” She pouted and ate another mochi. Shisui hid his snickers, and Itachi rolled his eyes. Hiruzen was wary of his response. Her last response to his amusement wasn’t pleasant. Kagome hid hers so it wouldn’t start something.

“Kagome-san, it sounds like he needs a collar.” Kagome choked. Shisui apologized. Hiruzen laughed. Itachi looked at Shisui with grossed out shock on his face. Kagome smacked his arm when she could breathe again. “Not cool, Shisui! You need to make sure that I’m not trying to eat or drink anything! I thought I was gonna die! Again!” Then she giggled. “I will have to tell Sango what a shock collar is. Maybe spell it so it shocks him when he thinks about trying to grope us.” Itachi gave her a grossed out look, and Hiruzen laughed harder. Shisui choked on his drink. “Itachi-san, honestly something like that would be useful. He doesn’t leave us alone, and he hits on every pretty girl we come across! It would prevent a lot of the trouble he gets us into. Him and his shenanigans. But he is an excellent diplomat, and knows what he is taking about when serious. He’s come in handy in more than a few situations.” 

She told them about her abduction by zealous villagers, all female. The males were used for breeding and labor only, and how they had planned to use someone powerful to sacrifice to bring back their long dead yokai ancestor protector, and how she would use Kagome’s body to help make more villagers, and how Miroku was the one to seduce his way into the village and rescue her while Inu Yasha distracted them. Their second encounter with Sesshomaru, sans his arm still, and how his desire for Tessaiga had him accepting Naraku’s help. She then described how badly Sesshomaru had injured Inu Yasha, and how he had survived just fine. All three nin were shocked at what Inu Yasha had survived. Yokai were no joke in her world! And she had to kill them! 

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either! He had a hole in his gut, and you could easily see through it. It was practically a window!” She used her hands on her belly to show how big it was. “The only reason he survived is because he is hanyo. I found out that Yokai bodies are ridiculously resilient. Sesshomaru didn’t even loose any of his fighting abilities when he lost his arm! He just switched hands. He must be ambidextrous to be able to use both of his hands like that. That whip would be really useful. It’d be like a deadly version of ribbon dancing if I could ever learn my powers enough to figure it out.” She continued about how much Inu Yasha complained afterwards about being fine, but wasn’t, and how it was his instincts telling him to be alert and to hide until he was healed so that other yokai didn’t come after him. His gruff attitude being a cover for his worry and weakness, pretending he was strong and tough when he wasn’t. A survival instinct. 

“And while we had stopped for the night to patch Inu Yasha up, I was kidnapped by a bunch of soldiers. Turns out there had been rumors spreading of me, and I was unaware. They said that I was some sort of ‘unparalleled beauty’ and with how ‘powerful’ I was, being able to sense the shards, and that I had the ability to ‘see people’s true selves’, that I was a ‘rare gem’, and anyone would be ‘blessed by the gods indeed to have me as a wife’!” She had a look of dead-panned annoyance on her face. “Some Daimyo thought to actually make me his bride. Ordered his soldiers to come get me. Inu Yasha was unconscious still from blood loss. The only reason I got away was because Shippo had managed to sneak into my shirt and hide when he noticed that I couldn’t get away from the soldiers. Miroku was busy making sure his sutra stayed strong on Inu Yasha to make sure he slept and recovered from his injuries. He didn’t even notice that I had been taken. Granted, I had gone to collect some herbs to help with Inu Yasha’s injuries. Shippo was able to transform into me, and he hid his tail just long enough to confuse the soldiers, and we ran when he threw a bunch of fake Shippos at the soldiers once he revealed himself. He used his pink bubble form and carried us far away, he did such a good job! I’m so proud of the little guy. It took us a few hours, but we were able to return to the little abandoned hut we had taken shelter in until Hatchi arrived to help us back to Edo. I learned to watch the rumors, and asked Hatchi to visit us often to make sure we were up to date on them, him being a merchant and all. They hear all the rumors.”

Then she got irritated while she told them about how stupid Inu Yasha was fighting demons while gravely injured with a hole in his gut after sealing her in her time by stealing her jewel shard and pushing her into the well. She expressed how lucky she was for Shippo and his quick thinking to steal the shard from Inu Yasha and bring it to the well to try and get her back. She was grateful to him, because she had a task, and only she could complete it. 

“Seriously, if it wasn’t for Shippo, and his ability to spot things that we wouldn’t notice otherwise, I’d be a lot worse off. I owe him my life so many times over.”

It was seven pm now. Hiruzen ordered Ramen for all of them. They had another break. Kagome pulled out her phone and showed Itachi and Hiruzen about english word searches. An hour passed before Kagome sensed the aura of the same delivery boy from yesterday arrive on their floor. 

“Food’s here. He’s just telling your assistant.” Hiruzen’s mouth quirked at the sides of his mouth. “I must say, knowing where people are must be very useful. It certainly would be here.” 

“It can be. Sometimes you don’t want to know what people are doing.” Her face reddened and an awkward, grossed out expression crossed her features. Shisui almost choked on his noodles. Kagome just kept eating her bowl. Itachi took a breather so he didn’t choke. Hiruzen was amused, but silent. He continued to eat out of his bowl. 

“God, it’s been so long since I’ve had proper Ramen. Now if only there was some oden, this really would be a vacation.” Shisui grinned, plan forming in his mind. Itachi made note that she liked Oden more than ramen. Hiruzen just smirked with a mouthful of noodles. He also knew that Shisui was up to something.

Hiruzen already had four tapes. That was a lot of story to go through. Hopefully he could cut all the unimportant bits for her file, and write out all the words in a more detailed book later. She might just like having her story written down. He thought it might make a good gift later. If he could get to writing it all down. He could use it as a break from paperwork… at least it would be something fun with paper. He sighed, and brought up the last point he had for the day. They would finish tomorrow.

“Shisui, Itachi, have you thought of a place to keep Kagome safe? I trust it is no trouble.”

Shisui nodded. “For this week at least. We need your permission though. And sound seals. Kagome is not a shinobi.” And he pointed to the ceiling.

“Ah, that is a good place considering what is going on. There is more to your story correct, Kagome?” He pulled out the paper specifically for writing out Fuuin, and began to make the sound sealing arrays.

“Yeah, but we are about eight major things away from being done though. And if that’s where we are staying, then perhaps we can get this recording stuff done. The next bit fills in on Inu Yasha and Kikyo’s past. And Naraku.”

All three perked at this. “I can go on.. The next few days will be me calling you for questions to fill in blanks anyways. Once this is over, you are for the most part free to roam my village, so long as these two stay with you. I want to keep you safe from Danzo. No doubt he knows you are here, but will know nothing about you. I expect that I will receive a visit from him asking about you. When he gets nothing, he will most likely send for his ANBU to take you. Be wary Kagome. Use your awareness as much as you can. We will help you as much as possible.”

Kagome nodded with a smile on her face. “Thank you all for doing so much for me. I wish I could repay you. If the well lets me back, or, if your able to come through, I will find a way to repay you for my life! Maybe I can give your world information. You said that there were a lot of super useful things that we have that you don’t. As long as you don’t take dangerous stuff, like what I made you swear not to ask about, your pretty much welcome to any information from my world, I hope it helps yours out a lot. It would improve the quality of life here quite a bit.”

Hiruzen got an excited look on his face. “Now that would be quite the possibility, yes?” Kagome’s face seemed to glow from within. “Yeah, and I could hang out here, or you guys could go over there! Well, so long as that Danzo person doesn’t try anything.”

Hiruzen smiled. “At that point, you would be protected by diplomatic immunity. You would be here to strengthen an alliance made with your world.” Kagome blinked. “Oh. That makes sense. I never thought of that possibility. If that does happen though, I will be in the past trying to finish stuff. My mom would be the better candidate for that, and I don’t think she can come over.”

Hiruzen smiled. “If that happens, Konoha will aid you more.” Kagome’s eyes widened. Those were amazing possibilities. Kagome went silent thinking of them. “Wow. I-I never thought you’d do that. I know Shisui wants to help me, maybe even Itachi, but for you to send someone… your village is more important than me isn’t it?”

“It is important, but think of it this way, while I have a personal interest in helping you find your way home, as Hokage, Konoha will be paid for it’s services. The things you know, have already imparted are of great assistance. If you are willing to give us more information that could help us improve as a village, the fee for my shinobi would be paid ten fold easily. Anything you can think of will be a boon to us.”

Kagome’s face brightened. “Oh! That’s easy! Anything I can think of, I will send to you. Shisui and Itachi may need new ears though. I’ll chatter them right off!” Shisui nudged her for her attention. “I would be happy to go deaf listening to you.”

Kagome went red. Itachi rolled his eyes. “That was incredibly cheesy Shisui.” Kagome reddened more. Shisui just smiled at her, and Hiruzen sat back with a satisfied grin, smoking his pipe.

“Let us rest for the evening. I have a lot to write out, and will most likely be retiring early tonight for extra sleep. My assistants have been bothering me about paperwork.” Hiruzen grumbled. Kagome giggled. “Well, if I were allowed, I would help, but I am rather sure that my assistance wouldn’t be… useful… here. You know super secret ninja stuff. Stuff I am not allowed to know, otherwise I would help you since I am the reason your so far behind.”

Hiruzen sighed good naturedly. “Well, I appreciate the offer, but this should be an easy matter to take care of. I only do it when something like this comes up though. Uses too much Chakra otherwise. It’s why I will need the extra sleep tonight. I will be writing up your file from the recordings, and I will use clones to do all the day to day work, leaving only the important things to myself. You three have a good night. I will see you four more tomorrow afternoon. I should be caught up then.”

Kagome giggled. “I don’t know why but it feels like those days where we get out of class early. I’m excited!” Hiruzen chuckled. “Have fun Kagome-san. You are a delight, I haven’t laughed so much in so long.” Kagome flashed him a genuine smile, and all three left the Hokage alone in his office. He created shadow clones, and had them fetch a few stacks of paperwork. While they sorted the importance of the files he had to sign, he changed the tape recorder from recording to playback, rewound the tapes, and started from the beginning. He pulled out a big set of headphones, and started and stopped the cassette as needed while he wrote down Kagome’s story. 


	7. Baths and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome thinks both boy's snoring is adorable.

Itachi and Shisui teleported Kagome to the Attic above the office. They had her sit, and remain silent. It was pitch black at first, then Shisui turned on a small flashlight from his pack. Kagome followed suit with her phone. The area was huge! They put up the sound seals around the room, and Kagome asked them to ask the Hokage later for a different set. She wanted to see what would happen if she put her Horiki in them. They thought it would be an interesting idea. Shisui wrote it into a scroll. He didn’t send it. He put it away instead. They both pushed their Chakra into the seals, and Kagome felt the sound barrier snap into place.

“Alright, the seals are put up, and active. You can talk and move around now. Lets get the area set up for a week, then we can go out and get food supplies, lights, and a couple things that will be useful, like a kettle, and a hot plate. ” Kagome grinned.

“Maybe we can find a place to shower. I feel gross. I’d been traveling for over a week, and was only able to have quick baths in the streams and lakes we passed. So it’s been like four days since I was able to clean up properly.” Kagome made a face. “I am gonna need more cleaning stuff too. I am almost out of shampoo and conditioner. If conditioner hasn’t been invented yet, I can make a coconut oil mask. It does the same thing, but it takes WAY longer to work, and I’d need a hair wrap to keep it from getting everywhere.” She thought for a moment. “If you want, I can help you both use a mask. It’s harmless, and the worst thing that happens is that we smell like coconuts for a night. We would need to shower twice though. Your supposed to put a mask on clean hair. Nothing wrong with having shiny hair.”

“Yes, and we can also start working on your posture with your bow. It will help your ability to hold and aim it a lot. Maybe we can see if some of our tricks for moving chakra work with your horiki.” That made Kagome brighten. “That would be awesome! Let’s do it!” And she jumped up to get stuff unpacked. Shisui unsealed her belongings from his storage scroll, and then everything he would need for the week. Itachi followed suit. They tucked themselves into the side of the section so there would be room for them to move around, and for Kagome to practice whatever she could. They would need power seals for later too, but they would have to test to see if they would even work, since she had a whole energy system that worked differently.

Three sleeping bags were laid out together. Backpacks at their heads and sides. Kagome pulled out her hygiene bag, and stuffed her bathing suit into it for later. She was excited now. “We can play cards when we get back if it’s not too late! I’ll teach you cribbage, my phone has a peg board.” 

Shisui enjoyed how happy she was. He enjoyed how simple it was to make her happy. Itachi poked her shoulder. “We could go to the hot springs.” Kagome’s face lit right up. “There’s a hot spring?” 

* * *

A couple hours later found Kagome happily ensconced in a steaming pool. They had already shopped for food, and decided to pick up some appliances the next day, and most of the stores had closed already. She was fine with that. One of the boys would grab a kettle, hot plate, pot and a pan tomorrow morning. For now, she was clean, she was fed, and she was soaking in wonderful hot water. She could feel her bones practically melting. She kept her awareness however. There was no one else at such a late hour, and she could feel the boys on the other side of the divider in the springs, right behind her. All three of them had agreed to sit together, just on opposite sides of the divider. “It feels so good to be clean!” She sang. She was shaved and showered, and she smelled a ton better according to her nose, and felt like five pounds in dirt had come off of her. She would find a place to wash her clothes later, but for now, she was clean and happy. “Yeah, we hadn’t exactly been able to shower either. We were just coming back from a week long mission. This feels great. We should do this more often. What do you think Itachi? Especially since we really can’t go home and shower there. Or Kagome.”

Itachi thought for a moment. “She could shower at my house if Mother likes her. She could shower while Father is gone and Sasuke is at the Academy.” Shisui thought about it. “Yeah, I was hoping to arrange something with your Mom anyways. I mean all you have to do is tell your mom that you find Kagome interesting, and she’d be more than happy to meet her to see who has caught your attention. She knows it’d have to be someone real special to do it. Nevermind if she knows I like her too.”

Kagome flushed. Her? Special? No way. She darkened further at Shisui’s blatant proclamation. Didn’t he know how that sounded? “Ano, I am sure your Mom is lovely Itachi-san. I wouldn’t mind meeting her. I haven’t met your brother. I hope he likes me. He must be nice if he’s anything like you.” Itachi’s ears gained a red hue, and Shisui let a genuine, soft smile cross his face. He could see that start of true interest in Kagome forming in Itachi. He didn’t have to do a thing, but he would, nudging it along wouldn’t be bad. He was already interested himself. ‘Honestly, I wish I could see her more after she returns to her world.’

Itachi got up, and headed into the change rooms. He’d had enough of this. “I am going to get dango. Kagome likes daifuku mochi?” The words were said softly. Kagome could hear Itachi murmuring, on the other side of the divider, but she didn’t know what was being murmured. Shisui nodded. He left as soon as he was dressed. “Ne, Shisui, Itachi felt embarrassed. Is he okay? Did I embarrass him? I didn’t mean too. I’ll have to-”

“No, I might have accidentally embarrassed him. Sorry about that Kagome. We will meet up with him later. Enjoy your time for now. Maybe you could tell me more about the different energies of your home?” Kagome blinked, then gave a pout. “Don’t think I don’t know what your doing. Subject change doesn’t always work with me.” She muttered loud enough for him to hear. He gave an easy going grin. He liked her more and more. She had an easy-to-like quality about her. “Hai hai, Kagome. But I would like to know. Could you explain some to me?”

“Well, the way it was explained to me… Everyone has reiki. It comes from the soul. Most people don’t have a lot, just enough to keep them alive, as Reiki is what anchors the soul to the body, and allows it to live. It’s like a life force. If a spirit dies, then so does the the shell holding the life force, also known as your body. There are some with an excess of this reiki. They usually tend to be more spiritually aware, like me, and they may be able to create and use their abilities, like I mentioned when I told you about Miroku and Kaede-baa-chan making barriers or infusing items with their ki. The difference between horiki and reiki is that those with horiki, their souls have been touched by the divine, the Kami, to serve them, as they need on the mortal plane. They have the ability to rid area of evil depending on how strong they are. Like, if I knew how to use my horiki to do this, I could infuse the very air with my ki, and make it so that not only can yokai not enter the area I’ve purified, but anyone who is technically evil won’t be able to either. Breathing the very air would hurt them, but anything not evil could easily pass through just fine. 

I could also create Shikigami, and they can take any form I want, including physical copies of myself. Once damaged, or when they run out of my ki, they turn back into paper. They can be used for a huge variety of purposes. One can even just continually recharge the same piece of paper, or continuously give their energy to keep a shikigami running. Really powerful ki users can infuse the air of an area and the shikigami within the area can just run on what’s in the air. Beyond that, we have an innate sealing ability, usually done with arrows. We just have to infuse the arrow with the intent to seal, and what kind of seal it is, hit our target, and poof. Seal intact. No array needed. Other seals do need paper, though. If we want the seal to be as strong as we can possibly make it, we use our blood in the ink to write it, and since blood coagulates, that means we need to have the seal planned out ahead of time.

One of the biggest abilities about reiki in general though is the ability to extend it outside of our bodies, and use it, as pure raw energy. I am really close to figuring out how to fire my horiki from my fingers like bullets, for example. I’m not great with moving it around. I am trying my best with what I have though. We can create attacks that way to. For example, Shippo’s Kitsune-bi. He has so much control over what he can produce that he can envelop people in it without burning them, or turn them to ash very quickly. He is also starting to be able to direct plants away from us and help with path making when we have to cross through forests. He can even ask the plants to help erase our tracks after. They are great for gathering information too, but his speech with them is limited. He is still trying to learn the language the plants speak. It’s energy based. He said that people who really know their energies can learn it, and that if I ever get that kind of control, that he would teach me. He can’t until I do. 

Yoki is the opposite or horiki. It’s what Shippo, Inu Yasha, and other yokai utilize. Like horiki, yoki can be fused with the air, but depending on the yokai, like Naraku at his castle, he created jiyaki. Which was poison. Remember the description I gave of the corpses of the people? His jiyaki did that. I’ve seen some plant based yokai disperse a hypnotizing energy so they can envelop and eat their victims without them realizing that they are dying, and lower moth yokai spread their pheromones by infusing their yoki with the air, to send it farther to attract a mate. But that’s nothing. There are scrolls on my shrine that depict yokai firing off attacks made of pure energy. Like Sesshomaru when he used the windscar. It destroyed an entire mountainside! There are tales of attacks so strong, entire coastlines were made new from deep inland, like magma rising to the surface, and creating something entirely new. I’m starting to believe that beings with that kind of power walk in my world. How terrifying it must have been when they were awake, or not sealed away yet.”

She shuddered. Shisui whistled. “That sounds scary indeed. But the abilities and versatility of your energies, they have a similar versatility here. You’ll see more of it soon, because we still have to train to keep our skills up. But your powers sound very convenient when one knows how to use them. I wish we could make the air unable to let certain alignments inside. You mentioned purifying yokai? What does that mean, exactly?”

“Oh, uh, killing them. Contact with my horiki usually turns most yokai to dust. Literally just poof sparkly ash on the wind. But uh, you can kill them normally, but purification is more guaranteed. Yokai have crazy regeneration abilities. Something that was long dead, like Mistress Centipede, could find something that would revive them, like the Shikon in my side, and then just start re-growing the flesh on their bodies, and heal themselves crazy fast. Inu Yasha is half demon and look at the injuries he survived from!”

“I see. So your powers make sure they stay dead, is that correct?” ‘Her world’s Sengoku Jidai is far more terrifying than ours was. To have survived as she has…’ 

“Yes. Once purified, their souls are purified too. They no longer enter the reincarnation cycle.”

“I see. It’s important to have those with your powers then, or your world’s past would only be teeming with yokai, death and suffering, and your time most likely wouldn’t be as it is now.”

“Exactly.” He heard her slide down to her neck in the hot water. “God this feels so good!” He smiled. “We can’t stay in too long.” A dreamy sigh followed that statement. “I know, it’s just been forever since I had a proper bath. It feels really good to be clean.” Shisui smiled at how easy it was to make her happy. ‘Noted’ He added internally. “Ne, Shisui, can you explain chakra please? I’ve heard it several times and I still don’t know what it is.” Shisui let his senses scan outward to make sure the coast was clear.

“Chakra is the combination of spiritual and physical energy. In this world, we make it automatically, I am assuming that you might have to figure out a way to make it if you were to try, but I don’t think it’s impossible, just difficult. We use hand signs to move our chakra to do basic things. It makes the Chakra within us respond the the Chakra in the world around us, and create different effects depending on the hand signs made. It allows us to use Jutsu. Shinobi have large pools of it, Civilians only have enough to live on. We can die from chakra exhaustion, depleting all the Chakra in our bodies before it has a chance to make more. One of the biggest differences though is that we can’t really manifest it outside ourselves. Those who can have copious amounts of chakra, and are really powerful.”

Kagome grinned. “So what does that make me?” She said sarcastically. Shisui’s forehead furrowed. She didn’t have a high opinion of herself. If he ever met the asshole who did this to her, he would make him wish he had never met Kagome, with the way he treated her. This wasn’t something you did to anyone, ever.

“It makes you capable. You have the potential to use it and become very powerful. We intend to help you figure out as much as we can, in however long we are given with you.You are more than worth helping.” Shisui said firmly. He tired to let as much of his feelings into his voice as he could. “And I will prove it to you if I have to. I wish I could go back with you and help you with your quest.”

Kagome blinked and sat up. “Why would you want to come with me? It’s not like there is anything there for you.” Shisui smiled. “Well, there is you. Maybe the well will let you come back as you need. We could give you training exercises, and help you learn how to fight, and tips for training yourself. That would be a good thing wouldn’t it? You could take breaks here, and you’d more than likely be paid a lot for information on things from your world. You’d earn quite a bit here for it. You’d also be protected by diplomatic immunity.” ‘And I would get to see you.’ He added in his head.

Kagome was quiet for a few minutes. She mulled over all this in her head. ‘It would be nice to see such nice people again too. They don’t hate me, or think I am stupid.’ “You really think so Shisui?” He could hear the hope in her voice. “I know so Kagome. Our Hokage would be an idiot not to do so. And he is not an idiot. Your worth it all.” She could hear the reassurance in his voice.

Kagome went quiet again. Her eyes filled with tears. She tried to not let them fall, but they wouldn’t stop. Instead she chose to keep quiet. Well as best as she could. She was sitting in water, and the movement of her shoulders made the water splash a little. She couldn’t control her breathing either. Shisui heard it. Heard her tears falling into the water.

“What’s wrong Kagome? Why are you crying? Can I help? Lets get out, and see what’s wrong.” Kagome let out a watery giggle. “N-nothing’s wrong. I hope the well allows me back too.” Shisui smiled then. “Well, still I think I am done, which means you need to come out too. There is no way there is any joint or muscle stiffness and pain. If there isn’t any in me, there’s definitely nothing in you. Let’s go before we prune up eh?”

Kagome gave a watery pout. “I think that you would hate how long I would sit in the Sengoku Jidai.” He gave a chuckle and stood up. Kagome spider-walked to the edge, refusing to get up, out of the wonderful hot water sooner than she had to. Shisui snickered at the noise. “Kagome, Your adorable.” He heard choking noises. Non-watery ones. He laughed and entered the change room to get dressed. Kagome followed several seconds later once she could breath properly. She sighed at having to put dirty clothes on. She had hand washed her underwear at least, and winced at having to wear the wet fabric, but knew it would dry quick enough, having done it before in the Sengoku Jidai many times. She would have to ask about washing the clothes she had. 

Leaving the change rooms, she met up with Shisui in the main area of the bath, and the shop keep smiled at them. “Hope you enjoyed your bath, you look much better Miss!” She said. Kagome smiled and nodded at her, happy that she was clean. They made to pay for the baths, and found that Itachi had already done so. “Have a nice night, I hope to see you again soon!”

They left the bath house, and made their way back to the Hokage tower. Undetected of course. He used some shadow clones to depict them still walking forwards, then teleported them up into the tower’s attic. Itachi was already there. He looked a little sad to Shisui. “What’s up Itachi?” Itachi turned to them. “They didn’t have any mochi left. Only dango.” There was a stick in his hand. Kagome blinked. ‘He really likes dango. Is it his favorite?’ “I like dango too. My mom likes mixing different flavor extracts into the dough. She makes lemon, mint, and hazelnut flavored dango. It’s really yummy.” Itachi looked at her as thought he had found something new to explore. His ears reddened. “You ..wouldn’t know… how to make it… would you?” Kagome stared at him, looking at her with hope in his eyes. Shisui had a huge grin on his face. Itachi was adorable. Kagome was starting to blush now too. ‘He is… wow.’ She found him attractive. Shisui once again noticed her interest in Itachi. 

“Yeah, as long as flavor extracts are in this world. But if they aren’t you can make sauces that go well with them. I know how to make those too.” Itachi’s eyes widened minutely, and if Kagome wasn’t paying attention, she would have missed it. ‘It is his favorite… And he is adorable.’ Kagome smiled at him. “It will have to be another day though we don’t have anything to make them. Why not learn a card game tonight? It’s not hard. You just need to be able to add to fifteen, keep track of two lines of numbers, and recognize combos. Let’s play some dummy hands. My phone has a peg board on it, since a real one just takes up space. My phone won’t die for quite a while if I put the power savings option on it. The goal is to accumulate 121 points before everyone else. There are two ways to do this..”

They played a couple dummy hands so they could see how to make points, combos, and peg during game play. Kagome won the first game. She explained sets, what it meant to be skunked, and the concept of nineteen. They played for an hour and a half. It only took them ten minutes to get the hang of the game. The time played was enjoyable. Soon though, Kagome was yawning more than she was talking or playing. She’d also gone quiet, instead of her normal talkative self. They had Kagome put her game away on her phone, and then change for bed. The dango had been eaten by all three of them over the course of the game. Itachi changed for bed. All three turned away from eachother to change their clothes. Kagome gave Shisui her phone.

“You can use it to check the time, or if you want I can set it for an alarm at a specific time. This way we aren’t overly late for seeing Hokage-Sama.” Shisui thought it over. “Itachi, is six okay? I’ll need a nap. He did say in the afternoon.” Itachi nodded. “We can decide what to do after we are finished with Hokage-Sama afterwards anyways. I suggest assessing her to see what she knows, then figure out what we can teach her.” Shisui nodded, thumb and fingers to chin in a traditional thinking pose. “We can also arrange for your little brother to meet her. Hokage did say that you could spend time with him, so long as she was with you.”

Itachi’s ears went red. Hokage did say that. He did like her, and wanted to see what she thought of Sasuke. He knew she would never hurt him, as her stories of the little fox kit had told him. She would defend him as much as she could. He mulled it over, and nodded. “If Sasuke likes Kagome too, then your Mom will have no choice but to like her. All three of us will, and if we like her then there is no way your mom wouldn’t. So her meeting Sasuke is important. Kagome was nodding off, waiting for Itachi to come to bed.

“Kagome-chan, can you set an alarm for 6? Not too loud.” Kagome nodded. “I can have it vibrate instead of make noise?” Shisui nodded. “That would be great.” Kagome set the alarm at six, and to vibrate. Handing her phone back, she looked around the area outside the tower carefully with her aura. Nothing so far. She laid down next to Itachi, and was asleep in under five minutes. Itachi waited, Shisui had a grin on his face. As expected. She rolled and snuggled right into Itachi, as he was a source of warmth. He snorted quietly in amusement. He made sure the sleeping bags and pillows were angled so he didn’t end up kissing her in his sleep. He looked at Shisui and raised an eyebrow. 

‘Thinking of kissing her again?’ He signed. Shisui turned red. 

‘Not as much as you are!’ He quickly signed back with a grin on his face. 

‘At least I have self control. I don’t kiss girls in my sleep.’ Shisui gave him a smug look 

‘She is the only one worth kissing and you know it.’ Itachi’s ears went red. 

‘Doesn’t mean I actually do it without her permission!’ He was getting flustered. Shisui gave him a sly grin. 

‘You really should try it though. Her lips are really really soft, it’s like kissing flower petals!’ Itachi gave Shisui a blank stare. 

‘Shisui, that’s cheesy.’ 

‘It’s the truth! If she’d let me, I’d kiss her all day!’ Itachi balked at that. Was it really that good? Itachi’s ears remained red until he fell asleep. He dreamt of kissing Kagome. No matter what he did to try and avoid it, he always ended up kissing Kagome. Shisui could see him shift from time to time, his face pinked. He grinned. ‘He’s kissing her in his dreams, Itachi, your adorable.’ His face softened and a gentle smile overtook his face. He scanned the area again. Nothing. His vigil continued, and he wrote out the explanation on the different energies Kagome gave him in the hot springs in the daily scroll report for Hokage.

* * *

Kagome’s phone buzzed in his hand. He looked down, and it took him a few tries to turn off the alarm. He stood and teleported himself to the Hokage tower bathroom, and used it. He then woke Itachi, and laid down behind Kagome, helping him get out of the Kagome hug of doom. Kagome woke briefly, saw they were just switching, and rolled over to Shisui. “G’night. Hope your shift was good.” Was mumbled into his chest. “Ah, it was. Good night Kagome. Itachi is on duty now.” He felt her nod, and then she gave a small snore. Shisui smiled at how adorable she was. ‘Like a kitten.’

He settled down for sleep, and held her close to him. Itachi watched them sleep. He ate a package of jerky to appease his hunger during his watch. He looked around for chakra signatures of anything that might try to attack them. All clear. Come nine in the morning, Kagome had gotten up, and had to use the bathroom. They left Shisui sleep. And Itachi teleported her to the bathroom. They played crazy eight countdown, and Kagome won after picking up not only all the twos, but the queen of spades and five of diamonds. Itachi pouted. Kagome snacked on some of the convenience store food they had gotten last night. She stayed cuddled up to Shisui the whole time, not wanting to leave the warm cocoon of blankets unless she had to. Shisui snored louder than Itachi, but not so loud that she couldn’t sleep if she wanted to. Kagome thought it was adorable. They both snored according th their personalities.


	8. And We Come Full Circle

Once again, twelve thirty pm rolled around. Hiruzen had a lot of what was recorded written down, and he had also used his chakra to use clones to get his work done quickly. He took breaks from writing to go over the few actual important documents. It was still more enjoyable compared to the usual office paperwork. Hiruzen had some things he was going to ask the girl to do while she stayed. It might help him with other problems in the village, ones he otherwise wouldn’t be able to get rid of himself. They were very simple. Help him weed out the bad apples. He hoped it would help keep her safe.

Itachi, Shisui and Kagome walked in after a few minutes, and he had most of the work he needed to finish done for the day. Just some mundane paperwork. Nothing unusual. His assistants were happy, and very busy now that they had to sort and file all the paperwork that had appeared overnight, via his clones. They wouldn’t pester him any time soon. He sent for lunch, basic bento, and set up the tape recorders. Kagome prepared herself this time, seeing Hiruzen’s hand go to the barrier seals under his desk. She only shivered a little. 

“I trust your night was pleasant?” Kagome’s face reddened, thinking of how she slept with the both of them, sharing bed space, and how she always woke up cuddling whoever happened to be in the bed at the time. Shisui smiled at Hiruzen. “Yeah, Kagome here is quite the cuddler. She turns us into her personal teddy bears.”

“Shisui!” Kagome hid herself and her face behind Itachi so Hiruzen wouldn’t see how embarrassed she was. “He likes to cuddle just as much! He had wrapped himself around me so much, I’m surprised he didn’t turn into yarn! I couldn’t move at all!” Shisui just grinned. “At least Itachi just keeps me close..” She muttered from behind him. Itachi moved away from Kagome, not willing to be a wall anymore. He also didn’t like how this conversation seemed to be turning to his sleeping habits, and he wasn’t willing to have them think he was cute god forbid. He was not cute!

With a chuckle, Hiruzen set them straight. The three chairs he had left in his office for them to sit on again. “Let us resume our talk shall we? And you can explain your card game during a break.” Kagome nodded, and plugged in her charging pad with her almost dead phone on top. It could charge while she talked.

“Well, we were just about to Kikyo and Inu Yasha’s history, right? And how Naraku fit into all of this. Well, Inu Yasha and Kikyo.. It started fifty years before I got to that time. Inu Yasha had heard of the Shikon no Tama and wanted it to become a full demon. Kikyo had been charged with guarding it, and while she had been charged with such an important duty, she also longed to be a normal woman. She never wanted to be a priestess. When she met Inu Yasha, she couldn’t bring herself to kill him, because in him, Kikyo saw the same loneliness in him that she felt…” She told them about Onigumo and his cave, and the tragic story of Kikyo and Inu Yasha, and the betrayal they felt at his hands. She was very sad, and explained how she felt that it was her fault that Inu Yasha was reminded of her all the time and how much pain she caused him. But that he also hurt her. Her name was Kagome, not Kikyo. He sometimes saw her instead of Kagome, and that it seemed as though she would never get out of Kikyo’s shadow. She then told them about Kikyo’s attempt to bring him to hell when they desperately needed his strength to take out enemies with jewel shards. 

She told them how Kikyo gained a bunch of yokai called Shinidamachu or Soul collectors, and how she survived off the souls of dead maidens, and how Inu Yasha took off to see Kikyo every chance he got. Every time she came calling, he was gone, including in the middle of the night when they were sleeping and completely unaware of his absence, because he never woke anyone to take watch. He just left. The nin looked at her in horror. Kagome was shaking, holding back tears. 

“There have been so many times I had woken up because I had a nightmare, and he just wasn’t there when I woke up. The tugging on my soul always told me where he was though.” She didn’t have to say how dangerous it was. They all knew. Especially with the draw of the Shikon Shards, Her being powerful and untrained, and no one willing to tech her anything. Tears did stream down her face, her shoulders did shake, and they all heard her trying to quiet her sobs. Shisui moved his chair closer to her and pulled her sideways. He couldn’t cheer her up from this. This was heartbreak. He saw it plain as day on her face. Hiruzen stared at her, he himself felt her heartbreak an echo of his loss of his wife several years prior. Itachi held her shoulder. 

This was horrible. She deserved nothing of the sort. No wonder she hid herself. They didn’t blame her a bit. They all sent up a prayer to the gods to allow them through the well. They wanted to right this so very badly. “If the well does allow more than just yourself to pass through, you will be taking my Shinobi, no arguing. This Inu Yasha is more than an idiot. He puts everything at risk, yet you need him and his strength. The gods better give you a more capable guardian else, you and them will be doomed.” His words did echo up to the Kami. They did not strike him down. He only spoke the truth. He was one of the few truly wise humans in that world. The nin around her let her cry until she was ready to move on. Shisui gave her a drink, and she took it gratefully. She took her time drinking it. When she was finished it, she was okay to continue. 

“This next bit is how we met Sango, and most of her story. It’s really sad. We are trying our best to help her get better.” Then they met Sango, and her attempt to kill Inu Yasha. They all knew it was a trick on Naraku’s part and had to stop her and tell her the truth, and then prove it to her. Kagome explained how badly injured Sango was, and described the scar and how big it was on Sango’s back. She told them about how they found out about Naraku’s plan, and then the debacle with the fake water god. She felt exasperated talking about it. Then she had an irritated face as she explained, once again how lecherous Miroku was and how it got him into trouble with a mantis demon, and how he had to have the Kazana repaired, and the debacle with that, and ended with her pouting like a child over how much trouble Miroku’s hands get him into.

“Now you know why I think he needs a shock collar. Damn perv almost getting himself killed.”

She complained about him for the sake of complaining. They couldn’t believe how quickly she bounced back. Her heart was so strong. ‘Such a courageous little thing. Tobirama-sama, Hashirama-sama, if you could meet her, I bet you’d both want to help her as much as I do.’ The boys felt their fondness of her rise. She’d been through far more than them, and yet she refused to give in. There grew a personal interest in each of them to protect her. Amused chuckles and a snort on Itachi’s part sounded around her. 

“Sadly, we found out that Sango had to endure more afterwards. She was still heavily injured when this happened.” She had then went on to explain about how Naraku tortured Sango with her little brother kept alive by a jewel shard in his back. Itachi and Shisui went silent and quiet. Both their auras radiating anger. “Yeah I know, it’s sick, how could he do that to Sango? She didn’t do anything to him, he tricked her almost to her death in the first place! Then killed off her village!” She was angry too. They could all feel it leak into her aura, and they wondered at it, but also understood her anger. Hiruzen was horrified. This Naraku was evil. If left alive, he would only hurt Kagome’s world, and since she was such a huge thorn in his side, he would destroy Kagome and her family before she was born, allowing him to rein over all as he wished.

Hiruzen felt helpless, which he shouldn’t as Hokage. She then told them about hanyo in general, as Myoga had told her. It was really informative. 

“So I have an idea that Naraku does have a night of weakness, but trying to pinpoint it would be next to impossible for us to do, unless Kohaku somehow remembers when it is, if we can get him back alive.” This made all three of them sit for a while thinking. This might be something they could help with if they had more details.

“OH! Did I tell you about the one time I did hit my target, and everything went almost perfect? I almost killed Naraku! I was this far off!” She showed them a space about half a foot apart. She then told them about how Naraku gave Sango an ultimatum. She stole Tessaiga, and none of them were mad. They were able to stop her from killing Kohaku, and then herself, and instead went to confront Naraku at his castle. She told them about how her powers nearly killed Naraku, and how she had earned herself a place on his ‘threats’ list. 

“He deserves it, honestly. He needs to learn how to take rejection. This is the biggest hissy fit and the creepiest stalker I have ever seen obsess over someone ever! He still wants Kikyo, and because she has been reincarnated into me, he thinks I’m just as good as her too! Ewww! No Spiders! I don’t like them!”

Shisui agreed. He understood why he was doing it, but he also needed to learn to let go, and respect her decision. He was in the wrong. Itachi just frowned. ‘He is creepy. And twisted, with how bad he is trying to force her with him… And how he plans to replace her with Kagome… This isn’t fair of him at all. Kagome is herself.’

“After that, Kilala had remained poisoned, and she needed a boost so her own yoki could fight off Naraku’s jiyaki. Remember what I told you in the hot springs, Shisui?” He nodded, and then handed the scroll to the Hokage. “That’s from yesterday.” He said. Hiruzen nodded. “You may want to read it now. You too Itachi, unless you read it while on duty?” Itachi nodded. 

“Yeah. Kagome slept for another three hours. I had lots of time.” Hiruzen unrolled the scroll, and read it. Then began copying down her explanation of the different energies in her world. They took a break. They ate food, Kagome did a different dance from her Ballet. And it was simple enough, so Shisui joined in. She giggled as he spun her around and dipped her. “Ne, Shisui, toss me! I’m good at this!” He grinned, and Hiruzen had a smile on his face, seeing them having fun, then continued writing on some extra paper since it wasn’t time to put the explanation of the energies in until after he wrote about the cat.

Shisui tossed her and flipped her, and she flipped off his shoulders, and had fun goofing around, no choreography, juts tumbling and having fun. It felt good to move around again. She taught them the Macarena. Itachi was too cool for it. Kagome laughed at him. Shisui was having fun. He could tell that Itachi was amused with how goofy they looked, and was enjoying them having fun. When their breathing returned to normal, Kagome sang a song from a show she liked. It was in Gaelic. All three had a hard time hearing the pronunciations of the words. Kagome took the pen and paper provided for her, and wrote out the words in the english alphabet, the Japanese translation, and then the phonetic kanji and hiragana. Then she said it in plain speech. She said it as it would sound, at normal speed, then slowly.

  
A Righ na gile  
A Righ na greine,   
A Righ na rinne,  
A Righ na reula

A Righ na gile   
A Righ na greine,   
A Righ na rinne,

A Righ na reula,   
A Righ na cruinne,   
A Righ na speura,   
Is aluinn do ghnuis,   
A lub eibhinn.

“Ha, okay, so if you guys ever learn english, Irish might use the english alphabet, but to pronounce it…. Here is the most common example.” She wrote the letters for ‘Samhain’ “If someone who didn’t know any Gaelic were to read this, they would pronounce it Sam Hey-n. But that’s not how it’s pronounced at all. It’s pronounced ‘Sao-win’” She giggled, and wrote out the phonetic spelling was in english, and Japanese. “It’s a fall celebration of giving offerings to appease the spirits, because they believe the veil between the spirit world and the living world is thin, and some may cross over. They aren’t mourned, but instead their wisdom is thought on to guide their loved ones.”

Hiruzen was very interested in learning about this culture. It was fascinating. The boys seemed interested too. “Shall we play cards?” She grabbed her phone from the window sill and set up the peg board. “This time we will have to play in teams, as there are four players. We all are dealt five cards, and only discard one to the crib.”

They played a dummy round, and helped Hiruzen figure out his points the first couple rounds. After a half hour, they’d finished the game, and got back to talking again. It was five pm. 

“Well, there is only this last bit, and then we are done, so.. We were on our way back from getting the Herbs for Kilala when I decided to go home for a few days and restock on supplies. Inu Yasha had said that the herbs would take a few days to work anyways. I figured it’d be perfect to go home and have a break, except when I landed in the bottom of the well through what I thought was the time slip, it ended up being a world slip. The well I landed in was circular, mine is square. I could sense two people at the top of the well after a few minutes, and when they looked in, I thought I was looking at a pair of Tengu. But it happened to be you two. You know the rest. Again, this is just the bare bones of it, so many little things happened, we’ve met bandits and other yokai, I’ve been kidnapped doing the simplest of things, breaking off from the group to go pee, going to fill our water bottles or get water for the camp, trying to brush my teeth in the morning, moving a little ways away from camp so it’s quiet to study… Once a super stealthy yokai was even able to kidnap me while I was sleeping, under Inu Yasha’s nose! I have to go to the hot springs or to have bath in the rivers we come across with someone else at all times! Do you know how embarrassing it is having a hanyo who can probably hear you washing yourself question what your doing with ‘that weird metal thingy’ meaning my razor, when I’m shaving? ‘Why do you do that Kagome? What’s the point? You could hurt yourself Kagome, you should stop!’ I was so glad when Sango joined up, even though she is still injured. I help her as much as I can with her injuries, but there is only so much I can do. I’ve already learned how to sew wounds shut, and did my best on hers. She said it helped a lot, but I am still not happy with it. I feel like I could do more if I only knew how, you know?”

She felt Shisui nod. “I can understand your want to help her, but when you can’t do anything anymore, what else can you do? She needs time Kagome.” She sighed. “I know.” It was quiet after her sigh. Hiruzen nodded. “You definitely have the most unique tale I have ever heard in my life. I am honestly glad to have met you Kagome. You are a wonderful girl, and so very strong! Well over half of my Shinobi would not have done or continued to try doing as you are.”

She nodded sadly in thanks. “Well, I am glad that most of this writing can be done away with. I will send questions through scrolls to you after this week if it’s needed. Until then, I believe that I can just send a clone up quickly with my questions while your there. Here are the seal arrays you requested. I hope your experiments are fruitful.”

Kagome looked excited at them, and gave a happy secretive smile. “Thank you Hokage-sama. You’ve been so very kind. I am very glad to have met you three. Your all a breath of fresh air, and Kami-sama knows I needed it.” She felt so very grateful to them. She wished she could pay them back somehow. They deserved more than just information. Maybe she could leave something behind for them? Her textbooks maybe? It’s not like she couldn’t replace them, or that she hasn’t memorized them. Hmm… That may not be a bad idea.

“If I may, I would like to get to finishing up this bought of recording your story for your file. I have a favor to ask you, if you would not mind. It is simple for you to do, and it would help our village so very much.” Kagome turned to him very interested. “How can I help?”

“Could you point out those you felt corruption in? Power-hungry, hatred, greed, selfishness. From there, I will send Shinobi to investigate them. If it’s anything illegal, I will have them tried for their crimes. If not, I will have them watched. Anyone you find those dark emotions in. I warn you, there is much sadness, it’s part of the life of Shinobi, but those other things have no business in Konoha. They endanger the village, and those within. I protect the village, even from my own. It is what it means to be Hokage.”

Kagome understood. “I understand. I will point out anyone I want to avoid. Those are the names that should be marked down, okay?” Shisui smiled. “Sure!” Itachi nodded. “Anything you wish to share, ideas, things you know that may be useful for us, little tips and tricks, tell them, they will tell me, and I will see what can be done with it. Dismissed.”

Itachi and Shisui bowed, Kagome a second later, they felt the wards drop, and they left. 


	9. Sweetness That Shadows Crave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally free of explaining her story, Kagome, Itachi and Shisui finally have a night to themselves, and a chance to make something delicious. Yet it seems she has been discovered, but also still secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I have a few more chapters ready now. I think these will be good to last you a while. Please enjoy!

“Well, there should still be a couple shops open. We should get the hot plate and the kettle while we can. Shouldn’t take long. How about Yakitori and maybe some gyoza for dinner? It’s been a while since we had it. Then we can see your bow stance. We will take you to the training grounds for that.” Shisui offered.

  
A couple hours later they found the three walking back to their hideout above the Hokage’s office. They had gotten the food that could be made by using the two small appliances. Itachi had also taken Kagome to a small market that held a specialty section. She had pointed out several extracts that would be good for a multitude of desserts or drinks. Itachi had also bought a few different kinds of nuts, after hearing her talk about a more savory type of dango she had tried once that had been rolled in nuts. He’d bought the ingredients needed to make dango, and the small pots, pans and other things for cooking, and brought them straight to the hideout. He was hoping Kagome wouldn’t be too tired later to make those special dango she had mentioned earlier.

  
Shisui wore a grin on his face the entire time he watched Itachi get everything. Itachi would periodically glare at him when he looked at him. They both watched Kagome in amusement when she stopped by some packaged noodles, and started chanting.

  
“Oden da, oden da, oden da, oden da, oden da!” She turned to them with the biggest puppy eyes ever and Shisui outright laughed. Itachi was laughing silently. She reminded him of his little brother asking their mother for cherry tomatoes as a snack from the market. Shisui made a mental note to send a clone to grab the stuff for oden tomorrow for supper.

* * *

  
They had finished at the market, and delivered everything to the hideout via shadow clone, before grabbing the scroll with Kagome’s bow and arrows, and some water and heading to the training grounds. The boys were trying hard not to wince at her firing stance, and the fact that she held the arrow itself, and not the string. She had no idea how to aim either. She was facing completely forward, and using both eyes. Her shots hit nothing but grass, and fell short several feet from the closest target. Which was only twenty feet away. 

  
Itachi came up behind her, and helped her correct her stance. He turned her sideways, and moved her into position. Shisui told her about not holding the arrow but the string instead. Itachi showed her how that looked from her perspective, hand over hand. They helped her shoot a few arrows, and then had her try on her own. They quickly realized that she needed to practice getting into position first. Then they added her drawing the bow without the arrow. She practiced this for a couple hours, with breaks when her arms seemed to get a little wobbly.

  
Soon it was dark, and she was getting rather tired. She knew she would sleep well tonight. She knew Itachi really wanted to try those dango though. She wouldn’t make it tonight, but she could surprise him tomorrow. She smiled a soft smile at her thoughts.

* * *

  
Hiruzen was about a quarter of the way done recording Kagome’s file from audio to text, when he felt Danzo at the door, and it was opening. He paused his tape, and closed the file, and put them both away quickly into the locked and sealed drawer in his desk so Danzo wouldn’t see.

  
He pulled a paper down from the stack of paperwork on his desk, and began stamping and signing the pages on the pile, making it look like he had been working the entire day away. He remained quiet. Danzo never asked to see him, he just came in. It irked Hiruzen quite a bit. He would have to ask Kagome as soon as Danzo left if he was corrupted. He had felt the three return to the attic earlier. Kagome had pulled her energy to herself, he had felt it seemingly disappear. Itachi and Shisui had followed suit.

  
“Hiruzen. I’ve questions to ask you. I am sure you heard about the power flare a couple days ago. It was from the forest to the east, a little ways out. I was wondering if any shinobi had reported anything to you.”

  
Hiruzen sighed, and removed his Hokage hat, before scratching his head. “They did. It was an experiment I sanctioned. The details are classified. They are no harm to the village. Leave it at that Danzo. I’m not arguing with you on this.”

  
“Oh? A few of my ROOT members reported seeing two Uchiha ANBU with a girl the past couple days after being brought to your office. I have her description as well. I have already checked the records, and no one matches her description. Is she perhaps an experiment? I didn’t think you had it in you Hiruzen. In fact I don’t think she is an experiment at all. I think she is the source of that alien energy that swept over the village the same day after that flare of power. She could be a spy, a threat. What did she tell you?”

  
Hiruzen continued stamping and signing the reports on his desk. “You are not getting anything out of me Danzo. That is classified. Leave. I will not give you anything. The council has already asked and been told the same thing.” Hiruzen remained firm. For the sake of the girl, he would not give in. She’d been through so much, and would give them so much more in return if she remained away from Danzo. She still had an incredibly important task to do, and her world was at stake if she didn’t do it. He could not in all good consciousness, let that happen. It’s not like this world wouldn’t get by without her. Hers however…

  
Seeing that he truly wouldn’t get anything out of Hiruzen, Danzo left. He had other ways of getting what he wanted.

* * *

They had eaten and gone to bed. It was Itachi’s turn to stay up tonight. He was enjoying the fact that Shisui and Kagome sleeping together looked like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. He had his arms around her, and she had her legs over his. At one point, Shisui had shifted to his back, and Kagome had wiggled herself on top of him, and made him her mattress. Shisui woke up briefly, and snorted at her, before rolling over with her. She ended up being his giant teddy bear, his head half on her chest, half on her belly. Arms around her, and the rest of his body over hers. Itachi shook his head. If only he had a camera.

  
Morning came quickly for him. He felt some chakra signatures moving around the city, close to the Hokage tower, but otherwise a quiet night. Kagome’s phone buzzed at six am, and he woke both the occupants of the sleeping bags. “It’s time to start training. We have quite a bit to cover, and you need to start early if you want the day to yourself afterwards.” 

  
Kagome’s bleary eyes were rubbed while she grumped and pouted, then tried to go back to sleep and met him. Shisui gave an amused huff, before moving away from her. “Itachi, she should start with something easy to wake up with, mindless. So lets start with her dance. Then we can do archery. Lets see what she remembers from last night. Then when she is more awake, we can do the other things. Kagome-san, you should get up and stretch. You can dance up here, the sound seals will keep anything from leaving.”

  
Kagome gave him a watery pout. “I’m not allowed to eat first?” 

Itachi blinked, and then started going through the food they had to see what could be made up quickly for breakfast for all three of them. Kagome sat up, and brushed her hair, then asked for the bathroom, with her hygiene bag in hand. Shisui grabbed his morning things, then brought her, and waited in the bathroom outside the stall to make sure no one was in there waiting to take her. She finished using the toilet, and he took his turn, using his senses to make sure she was fine while she washed her face, and pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. She changed into the day’s clothes as well. When both were finished, they left, and Itachi left to take his turn. Kagome could see that he had started on eggs and instant miso. Kagome pulled out the things for the dango she wanted to make earlier. She waved Shisui over, and had him help her get it done quicker. They had made three different flavored doughs for dango by the time Itachi returned. Kagome smiled at him and the two hid what they were doing. 

  
“Don’t worry, I’m making breakfast. I am used to doing this all the time in the past. You rest a little, we have quite the day ahead of us I think.” Itachi did as they asked him.

  
Shisui would form and drop the little dough balls into the boiling water on the hotplate to cook, and Kagome fished them out when they rose to the top while she made soft boiled eggs. Once the kettle boiled, they made the miso in three bowls, and Kagome cracked and peeled the eggs before slicing them and placing them into the miso portions. Shisui was almost finished with the dango. Kagome refilled the kettle and started on morning tea. She arranged all the dango by flavor on a large plate for them all to take from, and the three bowls of miso with egg, then three cups for tea. She asked Shisui to be sneaky for her, and set it up in front of Itachi. A few minutes later, she brought over the tea and sat down, the swishing of the sleeping bags gaining Itachi’s attention. He opened his eyes, and was surprised to see breakfast in front of him. With dango? Well he wasn’t gonna argue.

  
The flavored dango was a hit.

  
That morning saw the beginning of a strict morning routine that was done in a seemingly randomized pattern of places. It was so Kagome had a good mix of different things to aim for. Today had two hours for each subject to be explained to her and for basic explanations to be made. They started with her dance, she warmed up quickly, and danced around on the floor, before they cleaned up the room quickly, and then she was teleported to a training field where they set up targets while she practiced her stance, and drawing the bow. It was when she started shooting that she starting making all the small tweaks to her stance that needed to be made all by herself. Soon she was shooting arrows much better than before. She still needed to work on her draw strength, but her aim was better. She practiced placing her arrows on the fingers of both her hands on the bow instead of using the arrow to draw the string back. Her shots became far more accurate this way.

  
She was certainly sore from yesterday, but she stretched out those sore muscles, and worked them. It was part of strength building. 

  
Next was the lessons. She was an avid pupil. She studied hard. She had an excellent memory. They drilled her all day, and she also made notes when they returned to the Hokage tower for lunch. Hiruzen had sent a clone up with questions about the Shikon, and how the soul thing worked entirely with Kikyo. He also warned them that Danzo had made an appearance last night. Kagome kept herself vigilant and scanned the area quickly at that. They left the tower, and Kagome used her abilities to keep track of the Shinobi around her. They made plans the next day to meet Sasuke, and Kagome looked over the seals the Hokage had given her. She asked what it all meant. Just as Kagome was putting her notebook away on what she had learned of the seals, Kagome stiffened. 

“Ne, we are being surrounded. There are five of them. What do we do?”

  
“We are gonna teleport away. Stay with me Kagome, I have a special ability. Itachi, don’t be afraid to use Genjutsu on them. They are attempting a kidnapping after all. We need to hide you away until we lose them, then head back to the tower. Sorry to cut your day short Kagome.”

  
“I like living, Shisui. I’m pulling my power to myself. Let’s go!”

  
Shisui picked her up with one arm, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and torso as best as she could manage, then her legs around his hips. “Incase you need your hands, I’m not great at holding on during flips, but it’s better than no hands!”

  
He grinned at her. She gave him a look to not say anything dirty, or she’d smack him. He teleported them out of the clearing, and Itachi made clones to distract the ROOT members. Once Shisui was out of sight, He also made clones, but they were in pairs, and one of each set transformed into her, and took off. It took twenty minutes of running for them to even change direction, and head to a good hiding place. Shisui had Kagome hold her breath for twenty seconds while he swam them to an underwater cave in the river. It was known only to the Uchiha who once lived in the compound before they were moved to the outskirts.

  
From there, they waited until all of Shisui’s clones returned to him, knowing that Itachi would find them shortly. Kagome kept herself aware. She watched for Itachi’s Aura. Shisui quickly wrote in the daily report scroll about the attack, and that it was all ROOT members.

  
Three hours later, Kagome felt Itachi’s aura approach, with no others following him. They returned to the tower, and Kagome decided to study her notes from the day.

* * *

  
Itachi had played cribbage with Kagome for a while, then she switched to crazy eight countdown, then 7up, bullshit, which she utterly lost, and Shisui ended up being the reigning champion. She gave up on cards at that point, and wished she had a few board games to play. Maybe some video games. In the end, she practiced more with her spiritual abilities. The boys were impressed with how much she had. She definitely was improving with the little tips they were giving her, and she seemed to be able to twist the little she did know about using her horiki into their teachings. She was able to reach her center, and work on touching it with her mind. She was unable to do much else however. Itachi and Shisui were adamant that she had made progress. She didn’t understand because she didn’t see herself glowing while she worked. She was so focused on her center that she didn’t feel the ki moving under her skin.

  
Soon after they went to bed, Kagome mentally exhausted.


	10. And She Is Good With Kids!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome meets Sasuke, whom she instantly finds adorable. Why can't she have a little brother like him?

Kagome woke a moment before the alarm, which surprised both shinobi, Itachi was about to wake her. She knew that however, and had decided to poke Itachi’s side. That was how Shisui and Kagome discovered that Itachi was ticklish. She found this funny, and poked him a few times in other areas. He did not expect to have to guard himself like this.

  
“Kagome! No! -Shisui!” was all that was heard before he was laughing his silent laugh, before teleporting away from them. He did not bring Kagome to the bathroom. Shisui had to.

* * *

  
They had first done body maintenance, then they had exchanged information, Kagome told them as much as she knew about kitsune and the things Shippo had done as well as some of the folk lore on them from her shrine, like their love of tofu, and Inari pouches. In turn they had told her about the basics of energy manipulation and how to increase your chakra through both spiritual and physical training, and how she might be able to make chakra.

  
“Well, that is a possibility, but for now I need to figure out how to use what I have first. The idea is interesting, some of the things I have seen you two do would be super useful in my world.” Kagome spoke while writing her notes. Shisui had included her explanation of yokai in his report. Then they trained more in archery. Her stance was getting better, it was easier for her to get into. They practiced drawing her bow, and attached little five pound training weights to her arms to wear all day and night to help her arms become stronger to help her with her draw strength.

  
Then they worked on her spiritual abilities some more. She was able to find her center easier, and started to tug on what she had. It refused to budge. She tried for a while before becoming frustrated. She then decided to try to imbue the seals the Hokage had given her the day before with her horiki. Itachi and Shisui guided her to where the energy had to be put, and when the barrier went up, nothing could be heard, and the chakra signals were scrambled. You couldn’t hear or feel anything going on inside it. They decided to use these for the rest of their training exercises, and Shisui sent a raven to the Hokage about this development. Kagome felt proud of herself. She had done something super useful. It boosted her confidence, and she took a picture of the array with permission for use in her own world. The Hokage was happy to help with something so simple.

  
“I think you can do far more, these are simple things to learn for us, and we will help you as much as we can. Maybe you’ll make super potent sealing arrays too. Sadly we have nothing to seal. But you might be able to shape your horiki around your weapons, and create barriers much quicker than you thought.” Shisui said from beside her. Itachi was checking the outside of the seal array for any weaknesses or imperfections. A few moments later, he entered the sound barrier, and nodded at Shisui, who began writing the report to the Hokage. Itachi approached them. 

“You need to add that there is a visual component as well. I tried to read your lips but the barrier distorted it’s surface constantly, and I could not. This will be beyond useful.” Shisui blinked and added it onto the end of what he was writing.

“This is very impressive, Kagome. Especially for someone who is just beginning to learn how to manipulate their energy into something useful. Very well done.” He smiled up at her from his position writing in the scroll.

  
Kagome was holding back tears. It felt so good to be validated. Kagome smiled at him, and he could see how much his words had impacted her. He hadn’t said anything special. It was what he had said to anyone who would have done something as similar in skill and ability. It gave him an inkling as to how damaged she was. Shisui could tell right away that they had a lot of damage to try their best to fix and heal. This much damage meant she had been abused for quite a while. He was willing to bet that it had been done on purpose too. He once more felt the desire to go with her, and wished once again that the well would let them through. Both Itachi and Shisui shared a look.

* * *

  
They had finished the exercises for the day and had already gotten some lunch at Ichiraku’s. Kagome was happy to have some extra toppings in her bowl. She had danced in her seat while eating them. Itachi had disappeared a few minutes before they had left for the ramen stand. Kagome had no idea where he was. Shisui said he was fine, and had gone to retrieve someone. That made Kagome excited. So imagine her surprise when a little boy about her brother’s age with black hair, spiked in the back, with a very cute face, and wide black eyes looked at her for a moment, and then glared at her. 

  
“Kagome, this is my little brother Sasuke. Sasuke, this is my client, Kagome.” And then Itachi ordered his little brother a bowl of ramen for lunch. “He is on his lunch break from the Academy. So he can’t stay, but I will be bringing him by when he is let out of the Academy today.” 

  
Shisui let out an exasperated sigh at Itachi’s introduction. “Well unless Kagome has a way to make your brother like her, that introduction will make him hate her before he even knows her.” He said under his breath so Itachi could hear. Itachi froze for a second, and then watched the scene carefully, ready to intervene if need be. Kagome had already gotten off the stool and crouched down in front of Sasuke.

  
“Hello! My name is Higurashi Kagome. Your older brother told me about you, so I am really excited to meet you, Sasuke-san!” Kagome smiled at the little boy, and held out her hand. She didn’t expect Sasuke to turn his nose up at her, and turn away from her. 

“I don’t care who you are, you are taking up Nii-Sama’s time in the village. We were supposed to be doing lots of training together, and now he doesn’t even come home at all, and it’s all your fault!” Kagome blinked a moment, before a soft smile settled on her face.

  
“Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that is what was happening. I didn’t mean to take your brother away from you. I have a little brother too, and I know how important it is to spend time with the ones you love. My little brother loves me very much, the same way you love your brother. He tries to spend as much time as he can with me, since I am gone a lot too. It makes me sad that I can’t see him much. You see, I am your brother’s mission right now, but we are having a bit of a hard time with it. Itachi-san and Shisui-san have been assigned to protect me while I am here. Thing is the mission is getting a little harder to do, because we are getting really bored. It makes us want to do crazy things that could compromise the mission.” She made a goofy face at Sasuke to emphasize how they were beginning to feel.

“I was excited to meet you, because then we would have someone else to help us not be so bored. I am sure Itachi-san would appreciate it if you could help us out, plus you could see him and Shisui-san more often, and they could teach you things, and I could watch. I think that would be fun! What do you think? Plus we could both learn things together from your brother, and you could learn with your brother, because I am teaching him some things too.” She smiled a gentle smile at him, one she used on her own little brother, and held her hand out for him to shake. 

  
Itachi watched Sasuke’s face turn from dislike, to curiosity, to interest, to thinking, to him, then her, and then desire to do what she had proposed. That was a good way to convince him to get to know her. He had to hand it to her, she definitely had experience with kids. He didn’t think his little brother would be willing to give her a chance with how he messed up their introduction to each other. Shisui had a smirk on his face.

  
“Damn she’s good. She fixed your introduction and put him in a position to help us. She is right though, beyond training and learning, there isn’t much to do, unless we take her out, which would be easier with Sasuke, because the ANBU and Danzo would be less likely to go after her in public in front of both heirs to the Uchiha clan. Plus this will help get your mom to meet and like her, which will only put another ally in our pocket to help protect her. I am rather sure that they will hit it off, and end up fast friends. Let Sasuke go home tonight, and talk to your mom about Kagome, she will get curious about her. Then you can mention that we are having a picnic tomorrow with just sandwiches since we can’t cook much for lunch, and she will be right over with lunch too.”

  
Itachi thought for a moment. “It would be best if she hears us both mention her as well. You need to make a ploy to talk to my mother and mention her name in front of her. Then Sasuke, then myself. I will go on the premise of showering. Sasuke will talk about her right away once he gets home from the academy. You are the one who has to mention there being a picnic tomorrow.”

  
Sasuke shook Kagome’s hand. “How about some dango after this? Then when we see you next, we can catch you up on what I have taught them already, and then we can train with Shisui-san and your big brother.” Sasuke made a grossed out face. 

  
“Dango is sweet. Can’t we just get tomatoes?” Kagome blinked.

  
“You don’t like sweets hm? Well, what if we ask for the sauce on the side to dip it in, and I just take yours, and you can have plain dango? If you like, I also know several recipes that use tomatoes as a base. I could make one of those dishes if you’d like sometime?” 

  
Sasuke looked at her in awe, then his brother, who smiled at him, then back to her with excitement. “Yeah! That sounds awesome! I can’t wait! Nii-sama! Lets get dango the way Kagome-san said to!” Itachi looked at Kagome like she had performed some sort of miracle. Shisui just laughed.

  
“Damn she is good! You can’t even get Sasuke to eat dango, and he idolizes you!”

  
Kagome blinked at the two. “What did I do now? Nothing embarrassing I hope!”

* * *

  
Sasuke had liked the Dango served to him for the first time ever. “’Gome-san, what kind of tomato dishes are you gonna make? What would even be good with tomatoes?” Kagome smiled. “Back home there are lots of different foods made with tomatoes. When they are ground into a sauce, they are delicious with salted cream mixed with chili, over chicken and rice. Also over pasta as a meat sauce, and in the sauce for lasagna. I can do lots with tomatoes! You’d love salsa!”

  
Sasuke looked fascinated as Kagome started describing foods with tomatoes as a base for them. Sasuke was excited by the time he had to leave to go back to the academy. He was excited to see her the next day however. Shisui asked Itachi to go shopping with Kagome that night for ingredients for some of the dishes she'd described to Sasuke, while he took the pouting boy back to the academy for the rest of his day. The moment they disappeared, Kagome turned to Itachi, and her eyes were huge, and she looked like she was holding in a squee.

  
“Oh. My. God! He is beyond adorable! Your little brother is far cuter than mine! Mine’s practically a monster. Don’t get me wrong, I love my little brother, he’s just a total menace!” She wiggled in excitement. Itachi blinked a moment, then flushed, but his aura said he was happy and that he agreed with her. 

  
“Sasuke is going to be a fine shinobi one day.” Was all he could say. Itachi felt his like and respect for her climb even more. He would have been friends with this girl if she could stay in the village. 

* * *

  
The Hokage had summoned them to his office a little bit later that day. He smiled at her, and welcomed her in. “Good afternoon Kagome-san. I am glad you are well from Danzo’s attempt at obtaining you. I’ve come to ask you to apply those seals to my office. They will be really useful for keeping certain information secret, including who is in the office if need be. This would be invaluable to us, if you are willing.”

  
Kagome blinked. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t be willing. It would benefit us both. How many are there?” 

  
Hiruzen gave her a fond smile. This girl was so very kind. He wouldn’t try to take advantage of her at all. She was only a boon to Konoha. “How many do you think are needed for this office?” 

Kagome blinked, and looked unsure. “Well Miroku usually put one sutra per room in the mansions he would swindle us into for a night or two, but he never had to do large rooms, so judging by the spacing of each sutra he’d place in the halls, which was about twenty five feet between each sutra… I would say about twelve. I took a picture of the ones you gave me to make some in my world when I go back, because those would be really useful. Is there anything else like that that I can have to try in my world? I can take pictures and use those to remake them in my world.”

  
Hiruzen nodded, and began writing out the first silencing array of twelve needed to ward his office.


	11. Youkai with Interest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke garner Mikoto's interest in Kagome, and she give lessons in Yokai, involving Sasuke.

The Academy had just let out. Itachi was waiting for his little brother to head home and change clothes. Shisui had gone earlier. He had popped by to see how Mikoto was doing, and to let her know they were okay, and that Itachi would need more clothes soon, since he was protecting a girl, and they tended to not like to smell, or be around smelly things. 

  
“She’s pretty cute too, Mikoto-Sama. She is super sweet, and very humble. She would pass for an Uchiha too, if it wasn’t for her eyes. They are really really blue. Bluer than the Fourth’s. She is really smart too. She got Sasuke to eat dango willingly yesterday.”

  
This made Mikoto take note. 

* * *

  
“Kaa-San! Kaa-San! I get to help Nii-Sama and Shisui-San with their mission! We are protecting a girl! She is really nice! She’s gonna make me some tomato dishes! Ka-San!” Mikoto had to stop Sasuke and calm him down to get the whole story out of him.

  
“What’s this about a girl? Is this the same girl Shisui was talking about earlier? She sounds fetching! Can you tell me about her? Is she your girlfriend Sasuke?” Mikoto teased her youngest son. The small blush on his face made her giggle as he shook his head “No! She’s my first mission! Nii-sama needs backup!” His eager and adamant face made her heart melt, and amused her to no end. He was so cute.

  
“I can’t say much, but Nii-Sama said that we would be having a picnic tomorrow for lunch, after the morning activities. He said I could join in! He said we would be training then! I get to train with Nii-Sama, and study with him! Ka- er I mean the client is really really nice!”

  
Itachi came in shortly after, allowing his brother to run off ahead of him to the house. He listened to what his brother said before moving in, proud of him for keeping quiet about who the client is. 

  
“Tadaima, Okka-san. I am out of clean clothes. Shisui is with our client at the moment. We need to find her a place to clean her clothes. Perhaps some non-shinobi clothes to wear. She is not a shinobi, yet still needs to be able to move. She is a dancer. I don’t know what she would like.” 

  
Mikoto froze for a fraction of a second. ‘All three boys have mentioned this girl now. Sasuke was very vocal about her, Shisui thought she was cute, and now Itachi wants to get her clothes. He would not be getting her any if he didn’t like her. Who is this girl?’ She wanted to see for herself.

“Do you need help finding her something? I would need to meet her if I am to help her. Is that allowed within your mission’s parameters?” 

Itachi looked at his mother with a schooled slightly surprised look on his face. “You want to help her? You realize that this is an S-class mission? You have to swear to keep her secret. Even from father.”

  
Mikoto thought for a moment. “Alright, I will do so. She needs clothes for now, right? Why not get her a Haori, and a drawstring circle skirt? They don’t need sizes. I can help you both shop with her tomorrow. May I come to the picnic?”

  
Itachi nodded. “We will make sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. We train and study in the morning. She is a dancer. I will bring Sasuke early in the morning. She wants to teach him things as well. He wants to see what kind of dishes she can make with tomatoes. She has been writing out recipes for you to make for Sasuke.”

  
“Ah, don’t worry about food, I will bring lunch. Does she have any preferences?”

  
“Oden is her favorite. She has a preference for Momiji manju, and Ichigo Daifuku Mochi. She mentions these things called ‘scones’ during tea time at home. I don’t know what they are. She knows how to make different flavored dango, and they are quite good.”

  
That had Mikoto excited. Itachi was praising her cooking. He had only ever spoken of her own cooking. And she knew dishes Sasuke would like! Mikoto had high hopes for this girl now. She had to be something amazing if all three boys liked her. 

“Is there a place to meet her safely at?”

  
“Shisui will come get you.”

  
With that, Itachi disappeared upstairs to shower and get more clean clothes.

* * *

  
The next morning, Itachi had woken Shisui an hour earlier than the alarm, and left to go get Sasuke out of bed to bring him over for morning training. Shisui helped her do her morning ritual, and then made miso with rice and egg, he put bonito flakes into one bowl for Sasuke. He was not surprised when Itachi came back with several sticks of Dango, and the sauces on the side at Sasuke’s insistence. There were also Manju, and surprisingly, dragon’s beard, several types of it. Kagome looked excited by this.

  
“Oh Wow, I haven’t had dragon’s beard in so long!” Kagome pulled out some extra paper plates. Sasuke rubbed his eyes, still not awake yet. Kagome thought he was adorable. Itachi was happy, and ushered Sasuke closer to Kagome. He sat beside her, and tried not to fall asleep. His stomach growled. Kagome handed him a bowl of rice, then sat Miso and an egg in a bowl beside it, and handed out the sticks of dango.

  
“Hey sleepy head. We got studying to do today. You should ask your brother to make a copy of the notes for you to catch up. We are learning about yokai today. Do you think you could study with your brother? You have a couple hours before the academy starts.”

  
Sasuke nodded, starting to wake up. He mixed the egg with his chopsticks, just like his brother did, watching him closely, trying to emulate him Kagome hid a smile behind her hand. Her face told both shinobi what she was thinking. Shisui cracked a grin, while Itachi thought they were both cute. It was one of the cutest pictures he had seen in a very long time.

  
Kagome mixed her own egg, picking up the bowl and beating the egg with an eight-shape. She poured it over her rice, covering every inch carefully before mixing it through. She had beaten it so well that there were no whites floating in chunks. She mixed her rice through, and ate it. Then her miso, then her dango. Itachi handed out a manju to everyone, but he handed Sasuke a whole tomato with the top sliced off. Sasuke ate it enthusiastically.

  
Kagome then pulled out her school books, and Sasuke looked at Itachi, who then sighed and started copying what he had already written for his younger brother. Shisui was amused. Kagome got her own things organized so that once she had given her lesson, she could study, and both boys, and most likely Sasuke would join her. So she prepared a stack of papers for him. 

She began her lesson. “Alright, so today we are going to learn about parasitic yokai…”

* * *

  
An hour later, Kagome moved to her own study area, and the two shinobi followed. Sasuke sat in front of her, and Kagome gave him her geology book. “This should be a subject you can use in any profession. It’ll help you spot fake jewelry. There’s lots of different kinds of semi-precious stones in there. It’ll tell you how to identify them. Go on, geology is really cool, and it’s one of my favorite subjects! I have some paper here you can have to make notes on, and a pencil. Go ahead, enjoy, I’ll teach you about some science things you can learn once you finish the textbook. A little every day, alright?”

  
Sasuke seemed interested at first, then disappointed a few pages in. Kagome giggled when she noticed. “Here, look, you need to know this boring part to understand this awesome part.” 

And she flipped to where the pictures of really pretty rocks were. He saw all kinds of shapes and colors. Azurite, agate in tons of different shades and colors, geodes, nodules, opalite, topaz, amazonite, moonstone, labradorite, black spinel, black sapphires, sodalite, marble, granite, jade, jasper, malachite, soapstone, and how it bubbled in water, limestone with lots of fossils…He looked way more interested now, and was excitedly starting again and taking good notes this time. He wanted to learn about those stones, they were really pretty, and he didn’t think he would like anything pretty like this! This was cool!

  
Itachi seemed a little taken aback at how quickly she got him interested in something he had no interest in before. It was fine for him to learn the technicalities of a subject. Shisui was impressed at how she had inspired Sasuke to learn something new that he himself hadn’t even learned yet. He would have to fix that. He refocused on her sociology book, and continued taking notes, both for his own interest, and for the Hokage later. He replicated images to the best of his ability in his report.

* * *

  
Soon, Sasuke had to be taken to the academy. He pouted, and demanded to come over tomorrow. Kagome said that was fine, and that he could stay longer since there was no Academy for him tomorrow. Then she stretched and maintained her body. She danced a little after too. The two Shinobi also trained a little while she did this. Just Taijutsu. Kagome stared at them when she was done, transfixed.

‘They move as fast as yokai! How am I ever gonna get that good? They’ve been doing this since they were little! They’d have to to be as good as they are!’

They stopped when Itachi was pinned by Shisui. Kagome clapped, staring transfixed at them. “I wish I could do something like that, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fight quite like that. I’d never be that good either. It’s like how if you wanted to learn Ballet, you’d never get to my level of flexibility because I’ve been doing it since I could walk.”

  
Both blinked at her then eachother. “Your saying you could teach us if we wanted to learn?” Shisui asked. 

“I don’t think she meant that Shisui.”

  
“Well I guess I could, but I don’t think we should start today. You both need different clothing, period. You can’t move the way you’ll need to in what you have now. It’s more suited to fighting. For ballet you need a lot of mobility, and usually a lot of mirrors so you can see the lines and shapes your body makes, to check if they are correct or not, and what needs to be adjusted. That would be hard to get here, especially since Shisui said we would be moving every so often to stay hidden and safe.”

  
“That is true. Can you make us a list of what we need? You may need to find alternatives for some specialized equipment.” Shisui thought the added flexibility would be useful for fighting. Dodging for example. 

‘Hard to get a punch to the face when you could just bend backwards so far that your opponent sails over you.’ Shisui added mentally. Kagome thought for a moment.

  
“Does this world have spandex? You’ll need tights and a thick leotard. Or leggings. Here, look at the fabric of mine. It’s light, thin, but not see-through, super breathable, it wicks moisture, and the best part is it stretches to fit the contours of your body exactly so you can see what you are doing in the mirror.” She handed them both a piece of her dance clothes. They held each piece open. It looked like it wouldn’t fit her at all. 

  
“Pull on the fabric. It stretches like dumpling dough.” The stretching they did to the pieces of fabric made them understand what she meant by complete mobility. They did have fabric like this. They had clothes like this too already. 

  
“I will see what the shinobi store has for black spandex. It shouldn’t be hard to get outfits for this. We will go later today when we get you clothes. You can tell us what will be best.” Itachi was on board with this already. 

Kagome perked up in curiosity. “Clothes? I must stick out huh?”

  
Shisui grinned, and Itachi nodded. Kagome looked a little forlorn. Then she brightened up. “I saw some villagers with really cute dresses. Maybe some of those wouldn’t be bad.” Kagome got up and grabbed her bow before waiting to be brought to a training field.


	12. Meetings, Knowledge and Abilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikoto and Kagome meet, and her demonstration of ballet both impresses Mikoto, and garners her favor. The perfect addition to the clan.

Kagome had finished her training, and it was nearing noon. Kagome downed a bottle of water. It was hot today. Kagome had changed into some light blue harem pants, ones that had a whole leg split, not the bag with holes for the feet, and a baggy light yellow shirt. She looked comfortable, but not overly showy. It was loose and light, and helped her keep cool. It was her last clean outfit. And once again baggy, and completely hid her. She looked like she was hiding and living in a sack. Shisui had already left to get Mikoto, who had picked up Sasuke from the Academy, informing them that they would be late returning. She had already told Fugaku that Sasuke was receiving mission experience before he graduated, and he seemed pleased at that, she didn’t say how he was getting it. So he didn’t mind that Sasuke wasn’t in the academy on time that day.

  
“We should move to the shade. Shisui will be back with Sasuke soon, and it’s cooler there.” 

Kagome nodded, and unstrung her bow before putting it away. She moved to the shade and sat with her legs in a wide v in front of her, since she could do so much easier in these than in jeans. She could feel Shisui and Sasuke approaching, and an alien aura.

  
“Itachi, there’s someone following Shisui, and it’s not your little brother. Do you know them? Are they in danger?” 

Itachi’s aura turned amused. “Aah. It’s my mother. She wants to meet you. It would be a good thing. She can help us out a lot if she likes you.”

  
Kagome froze for a minute. Then she grit her teeth nervously, and hissed out “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that I was meeting your mom! Now I’m all gross and sweaty! That’s not fair Itachi!” 

Shisui was much closer, and had heard her. He chuckled.

  
“We didn’t want you to worry about it. Kagome this is Itachi’s mother.”

  
“Hi, I am Uchiha Mikoto! I hear you have these three enraptured with you, so I needed to meet you for myself. Not just any girl can catch all three of them, especially Sasuke. He’s hard to get on the good side of.” 

Kagome panicked internally. Externally however, a flush appeared on her face from the comment. 

‘Enraptured? With me? Like I’m even cute or anything!’

She smiled, stood and bowed. “Hello Uchiha-san! I am Higurashi Kagome. It is nice to meet you. Sorry for being sweaty, I just finished practicing with my bow.” 

  
Mikoto smiled kindly at Kagome. ‘Shisui was right, her eyes outdo Minato’s. I didn’t think it was possible. Hm, perhaps I can help them out, maybe make it easier for them to be together. First thing’s first though.

  
Mikoto put her basket down. “Itachi, help me set up. Sasuke you too, make sure there are no rocks underneath the blanket.” 

Kagome got up and helped Mikoto pull out food and drinks.

  
Soon the picnic blanket was laid out, and they had all sat down to eat. Kagome was surprised at the momiji manju, home made. She got excited. Mikoto thought she was adorable. She watched her look up and notice Itachi and Shisui and smile. A happy sound of surprise left Sasuke and Kagome turned to see that his bento had little cherry tomatoes in it. She smiled.

‘He’s so cute!’ she cooed mentally.

  
“Thank you Uchiha-san! Everyone is so happy, and it feels really good to eat around them!” 

Mikoto blinked at Kagome, a little confused and she giggled.”Did Itachi and Shisui tell you anything about me?” 

On her right sat a grinning Shisui, looking at Mikoto. On her left sat a very happy Itachi with a bite of onigiri in his mouth. Kagome noticed that there were nori bits mixed in. Shisui liked his to be completely wrapped up. Hers were normal, but Mikoto had made cute faces on hers. She was happy to see a little fox, a mouse, and a bunny. 

“So cute! These are adorable Uchiha-san! I almost don’t want to eat them!”

Mikoto shook her head at Kagome’s question, then smiled at her reaction to the onigiri she had made.

“No, they didn’t. I am to keep you and anything I know about you secret. And I will, as this is their mission. They know what they are allowed and not allowed to do. So anything you want to tell me will stay secret. Please, call me Mikoto.”

  
“Oh, alright. Well, I have the ability to see auras, which is the energy or presence a soul gives off. It’s a passive side-effect of wielding Horiki, though I’m not that great at it, since no one’s been willing to teach me anything until I ended up here. It also means that none of the Shinobi here can’t hide from me. It also makes me incredibly empathic. It makes me able to see people that haven’t quite left yet either, since they are simply souls without a body. That I can tell what someone is truly feeling, and their intentions. It’s something you absolutely need to be able to sense where I am from, or the yokai would eat you alive, because you don’t know they are there to defend yourself from, or if they are being honest.” She had a serous look on her face that spoke of one who had seen many horrible things.

“I am from a different world, I got stuck here after someone played with the passage I use to travel between two eras, and while the magic in the passage isn’t gone, it needs to re-charge. My arrival through it sent a lot of energy around, and these two found me. But it also means that there is a man here who is after me for my powers, even though the Hokage has deemed me under his protection. He’s tried to have me kidnapped already. It’s why Hokage-sama assigned Itachi and Shisui to protect me, and stay with me at all times. Beyond that, I am a ballerina, which is a kind of dance, and I’ve been dancing since I could walk. Both Itachi and Shisui are interested in learning it. Most likely for the flexibility it requires. Maybe some of the moves would be useful in combat? That’s my guess.”

  
Mikoto blinked. ‘Yokai? What kind of world is this girl from to imply that they are normal things to be wary of? Another skill certainly wouldn’t hurt them. Perhaps I can have her teach Sasuke this skill as well?’

  
“Ah, well since Sasuke is helping in this mission, do you think there would be a way to teach him? If he could benefit from this skill as well, I would like him to learn as much of it as you have time to teach him, if you’re alright with it. Any supplies they need I will be happy to purchase for them.”

  
Kagome blinked, and gave a happy smile. “Ha! My madame would be proud that her star pupil has students of her own! I bet she’d let me dance a pas de deux if she knew!” 

The accent made Shisui curious. “Kagome, that term doesn’t sound like the Gaelic you spoke in the Hokage’s office. Is it another one?”

  
“Uh, yeah, Ballet is French in origin, so all the terms are in french too. The accent is the hardest to get with that one. I remember being little and my uncle would drill me on the accents. He wanted me to be able to pronounce the positions and steps correctly. He translated the moves for me when I was little, and I remember laughing at them. Like the word Échappé describes a slipping motion in ballet, but the actual word means ‘escape’, which is a play on words. ‘To slip away, to escape.’ Ballet is a very flowery poetic kind of dance, and it’s full of prompts and prose. So you’ll all most likely learn some poetry on the side without even meaning to. I did.” And she giggled. Shisui smiled at her, and Itachi snorted. 

“I think that’s quite alright. It just means that we can learn other skills for our careers. We do take seduction missions, and that could be very helpful to us.”

  
Kagome’s face flamed, and she looked away from him. “I did not need to know that!” Then she cupped her hands to her ears, and closed her eyes. “Not listening! La la la la la la la la!” 

Shisui laughed at her. Mikoto covered her mouth. A smile formed behind it and her shoulders shook suspiciously. Kagome flushed harder. Itachi’s lips quirked. Mikoto noticed everything. 

Sasuke pulled on Itachi’s shirt to get his attention. “Nii-san, you take seduction missions? I thought you had to be grown up for that!” 

Itachi’s eyes went wide, and the entirety of his ears turned red, his face flushed a light pink. “N-no, I need to be a year older to receive training in the subject. Shisui has been trained, and has taken a few missions however.” 

Sasuke blinked, and then looked curiously at his older cousin. Kagome moved to the other side of Sasuke, completely mortified. Mikoto snickered.

  
‘They both like her as a friend already. Sasuke isn’t far behind. This girl, Kagome, is most definitely interesting. Beyond interesting. She is fascinating. She speaks another language, and most likely knows others as well. The fact that she is from another world and has a different set of powers would cement her eligibility, her knowledge alone would increase her status in the clan, and the village. She will need Itachi and Shisui to survive if Danzo is after her. She reminds me of a younger Kushina in some ways. Definitely an S-class secret, and more. They would be nothing but good for each other. Perhaps she can save the clan, and I can have Fugaku grant her the boys…’

  
Mikoto liked Kagome. She could tell she was sweet. If a bit shy. She was also definitely not a shinobi. But then what was she if she had other powers? Some prodding wouldn’t be a bad idea. She finished the food she had in her mouth.

  
“So, Kagome. What do you do? Surely you have an occupation?” 

Kagome was grateful for the change in topic. She latched on to it right away. “Oh, uh, well… I’m technically a priestess, but I haven’t been trained to use my powers yet. I didn’t know I had them until my fifteenth birthday. That was about six months ago. I haven’t had a lot of time to work with them, because of the task I have to do. Nor was anyone trying to teach me. I have lots of time now though. Shisui and Itachi say that I am making progress, but I don’t see it. I hope I can figure something out soon. Before my task, I was a full time student.”

  
‘A priestess…?’

  
“What does a priestess do? I am assuming that they don’t just live at shrines praying to gods in your world?” Kagome blinked. 

“Well, how do I put this….” Shisui spoke up then. “Her powers are super useful against yokai. There have to be some people protecting those who can’t protect themselves.”

  
“Oh, and we take on a ton of other roles too. If a village doesn’t have a headman, and there is a priest or priestess, they take on the leadership role. We also play healers, pharmacists, midwives, and some of us have oracle abilities. Horiki is normally spotted in children, and once it’s spotted, they are usually sent to a temple where they learn how to use both traditional weapons and their powers properly. They are also taught literacy, numbers, how to run a community, and once they are all trained up, most miko and saishi are sent to wander until they find a place to serve. It’s usually a small village. I’m a bit of a special case. I’m not sure how to say it, there’s a lot, and there is no time for explanations. I gave the Hokage the bare bones and it took three days to explain.”

  
“Ah, she is from a different era than the miko she is talking about. They aren’t needed in her era, which explains her powers staying dormant.” Itachi added. Kagome flushed. 

“Oh yeah, there is that too.” Mikoto nodded. “That sounds like quite a bit to learn so late. You obviously have other skills that you’ve learned in the meantime.”

  
“Uh, yeah, in my world we learn many subjects extensively. This morning I introduced Sasuke to Geology. I have studied Sociology, and Science this morning. Itachi and Shisui read over my shoulder. I taught them about the periodic table of elements, and then how to balance scientific equations. Sasuke might start to collect rocks. I did. I have moonstone, labradorite, sodalite, malachite, a few different shades of jasper, and some really nice amethyst geodes.” Mikoto blinked.

  
‘This kind of education… and she’s inspired Sasuke to learn something his brother not only doesn’t know, but isn’t interested in. This is good. She obviously has high amounts of knowledge.’ Mikoto added another point in Kagome’s favor.

Shisui got curious. “You never did say how long you are in school for. Just the education starting ages.” Kagome brightened up. “Oh, that’s right, well, we start at Junior Kindergarten at the age of four. This is the start of Elementary school. This goes to grade six, one grade per year,, and you have to keep your marks up to pass. From there, there is middle school, grades seven and eight, this periods much more intensive that the previous grades, because the exams for highschool is at the end of grade eight. You have to pass at a certain percentage to get into some schools. Mine is supposed to be at the end of this year. 

  
Depending on your grades is what High Schools will accept you to finish the basic education. High School is grades nine to twelve. From there most students go on to college or university but this continuation costs money. Again, you have to pass an entrance exam, and have really good records on your report cards, marks, participation, attendance, all of it matters, and it starts at the age of four. From there you can choose what you want to learn. Want to be an archaeologist? You need tons of history classes, a few languages, world religion, and specialized classes that teach you how to unearth things without damaging them. Marine biologist? You need several biology courses, including microbiology, basic biology, and then several specialized biology courses based on ocean life, and all the animals in it, from huge blue whales, to microscopic plankton, and the different bacteria and microorganisms that live in the ocean. 

  
Astronaut? You need to study space, how stars are formed, what the different colored gasses in the nebulas are, different galaxies, the different satellites around the sun, how the moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides, figuring out the scale of the objects in space, how to move wearing the equipment that keeps you alive in space, electro-magnetic fields, and so on. There are so many fields of interest that we are learning. We often don’t finish school until our mid twenties to early thirties. My world and era is one of learning and exploration. We’ve walked on the moon!” Was said proudly, then her face fell at the sound of the crickets chirping around her.

  
All eyes were wide, looking at her. Kagome felt really nervous now. “Oh, I probably said too much too soon. But it’s true. We have.” And she pulled out the ring she had pulled out in the Hokage’s office, and started slipping her fingers in and out of it. Definitely a nervous habit, designed to self-soothe. She was overly aware of everyone staring at her. 

  
She looked at Itachi a little sadly. “Can I have my slippers please?” Itachi blinked at her, a bit surprised after the last thing that came out of her mouth. Then Itachi realized.

‘She’s nervous. Nervous babbling. I’m sorry Kagome, I should have realized sooner.’ 

He was surprised when Shisui handed her her slippers. He’d stolen them from him.

  
“Go on, Kagome. We didn’t mean to make you nervous. Sorry about that.” Kagome took them and put them on, before grabbing her dance clothing that was also being held out to her. Scanning the area with her senses, she disappeared behind a tree to change. 

  
“We will need spandex clothing that is like a second skin. She has special shoes to dance in, as she has earned them at a young age. She has told us that we won’t earn them for a very long time because we must build up ankle strength, flexibility, and increase our abilities and muscles, as her dance does not use any chakra. If we were to learn it and add chakra to it, it would make a fighting style that is entirely new. There are great advantages to this.” Itachi was very to the point. Shisui fixed that.

  
“You just wanna dance with her, like I do.”

  
Itachi’s ears went pink. His face remained pale. He didn’t deny Shisui’s claims either. Mikoto absorbed this information like a sponge. And she knew what was coming next. 

“Nii-sama! I want to dance with Gome-san too!” 

Mikoto was set and determined to get this girl into the clan. And Kagome had given her the excuse to do so.

  
Behind the tree, Kagome was embarrassed. All three wanted to dance with her? No way! Too soon! Kagome ran from the tree to the empty area between huge trees she and the four Uchiha’s were in. The sun peeked through the leaves onto the forest floor, and it was nice and flat. Mikoto seemed very interested in her. Her aura seemed trained on her. She knew she was planning something, but what she didn’t know. It wasn’t any kind of bad intention. She seemed to only want to help. So her intentions were good. It was obvious how much she loves those three boys, and it was plain for her to see that Mikoto had come to check her out.

  
“Shisui, is my speaker charged?” She said as she did a couple stretches to loosen herself up. That included sticking her leg straight up over her head, no hands to hold it, and then standing en pointe. She pulled her leg farther over her shoulder towards her back by grabbing her ankle, and curving her back, holding it there. After a moment she released it.

  
“Yeah, phone’s good too.” He switched it on and let it pair, as he had seen her do every morning and in the Hokage’s office. Once it had made the noise to say it was paired, he opened the music program she had. “What song do you want?”

  
Kagome lowered her leg, and then moved into the splits, then to her belly, and laid her knees over her shoulders, and held for a moment before rolling to a stand. She did leg raises quickly, a couple pirouettes, and plies. Then she smiled and bent backwards, into a roll, before standing and making a graceful bow. She turned and tripped on a stick. Shisui snickered at her, and Itachi breathed out. Sasuke’s ‘Whoa!’ made Kagome’s face flush. Mikoto’s aura was both amused and impressed. She could see how this would be incredibly useful while fighting. Except the tripping part. That was funny.

  
“Kaa-san, I should mention that she is a natural klutz when she isn’t dancing.” That made her laugh. She could tell that Itachi thought it funny, and Shisui had a huge grin on his face. Sasuke was about to get up and go to her, but at the inaction of everyone else, instead asked if she was okay.

  
“I’d like something you haven’t heard before. Do you remember the stick thing I asked you to keep on you today? I’d like it please. The song I want is near the top. It’s called ‘Gaia.’” Shisui scrolled for a few moments, before finding the song she wanted, and selecting it to play. He tossed the long stick with what he thought was paper wrapped around the tip to her, so it would land in front of her. Kagome blinked and picked it up. 

  
“Thanks!” And she unstuck the end of the light fabric and tucked it onto itself. She placed it on the ground before it could unravel much. She took a few steps away. This was her first time using this in front of them. She started using much more quick, almost violent moves. The two boys she’d been with non-stop so far blinked at her choice of music, it was completely different from what she normally danced to. Though she had claimed that it was just body maintenance exercises that went well with that music.

  
She surprised them when she did a few flips, grabbing the end of the stick, and whipping it to full extension, right as the chorus note played, and she danced on her toes for the entirety of the song. She twirled it around herself, leapt through circles she made, through flips, and did not stay in or hold positions, she was in constant transition. She whipped the ribbon so fast through the air that it only ever touched the ground because she allowed it to. At a slow part, she moved fluidly into the difficult move they had seen in the Hokage’s office, except she didn’t hold her ankle. She had her arms extended out on both sides of the supporting leg, back touching the entire length of it, her chest curved out. Then as the chorus hit, she jumped to flip her other leg to the ground flipping herself around, and switching supporting legs. The ribbon flashed up with such strength and speed that it split a falling leaf in two, but she didn’t notice at all. The Shinobi on the picnic blanket did. Shisui looked impressed with her. Itachi stared transfixed. Sasuke’s mouth was not hanging, but it was open. Mikoto could see the awe building in him. 

“Kaa-san, you want me ‘n Nii-sama to learn that?”

  
She smiled.

  
She could see this girl’s potential, and there was a lot of it. She hoped the girl was willing to learn the ways of the Shinobi. She didn’t seem too attached to the priestess role. But at the same time she didn’t have chakra. She would see what could be done to help her with this.

  
“Yes, you, Itachi and Shisui are going to learn that.” 

Sasuke looked excited now. Itachi seemed to look forward to this. Shisui was obviously excited. 

  
Her slicing a leaf with her ribbon unnoticed made it into his report for the Hokage.


	13. Make The Best of Your Day, Even If It's Not The Greatest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another attempt on Danzo's part, and Mikoto invites Kagome to her house. Make her feel like a civilized human again.

Once they had finished lunch, Kagome changing back to her loose shirt and baggy harem pants, they had made their way into town, and we’re going shopping. Mikoto helped the boys keep a lookout, and made sure they kept in check with Kagome. She had told them she’d had a feeling something was going to happen. It had them all looking out. Kagome especially. She was on high alert. They had found quite a few things for Kagome to wear, and gotten the boys a couple of spandex clothing for Kagome to begin teaching them dance. Kagome had then pulled out a set of toe undies, and showed the shopkeep in the shinobi clothing store the bottoms, and drew out a shoe, asking him to make something with the same kind of material on the bottom of the undies to be on the bottom of the shoes she was drawing. Custom order. 

“It’s to control the amount of grip you have on the floor.” She’d said. It was easy enough, and he said to come by in a few days, after he had taken measurements and notes of the three boy’s feet. 

  
They left the shop, and headed out to see what else could be found for Kagome. They’d found a couple dresses, and after making her try the clothes on, and no small amount of encouragement, they’d bought them. Mikoto was pleased with her. She’d even chosen out a shirt and pants set, and the boys had gotten her a pair of blue shinobi sandals from the Uchiha district. Kagome thanked all three boys and put them on. 

  
“Ne, you should try them. Crocs are made out of a very unique material. They are really comfortable. Honestly, try them. One size fits a good range of feet.” Shisui humored her, and then realized why she liked them so much. They were incredibly comfy. 

  
“It’s like walking on thick foam. Try it Itachi. You’ll actually like it.”

  
Itachi rolled his eyes, and slipped them on, if only to make Shisui stop. When he had them on, he hadn’t even taken a step. He blinked at them. He was half tempted to take them for himself. Instead, he toed them off, put his sandals back on, and prompted Sasuke to try them. This resulted in a ‘whoa, these are really comfy! I want a pair!’ Which had Mikoto trying them and agreeing with the group. 

  
All four Uchiha’s wanted a pair of crocs now. They’d all noticed how quiet they were too. Kagome giggled, and promised to get them some if she could go home and come back. She wore her sandals proudly. They actually felt pretty comfy. She liked the difference from her own crocs. They made a satisfying clack shlack noise when steps were taken. She smiled at it, and was happy. She stopped by a small booth that held some semi-precious stones, and looked them over, Sasuke joining her. It was a mix of fake and real jewelry. Kagome pointed out the three different jaspers, the calligraphy stone, and some really nice pieces of fire opal. In the end, Shisui had gotten the calligraphy stone for her, after her saying it was one of the few really interesting pieces since no two pieces were ever alike and it was obvious why. They all thought it was rather neat too. Sasuke had gotten the jasper pieces. Kagome giggled. 

  
“See, I knew he was going to start a collection.” Mikoto smiled. Itachi sighed. Shisui grinned at the exasperated Itachi. Now he had to learn geology to understand what Sasuke was talking about. Not that it would be difficult. He smiled. He knew that if he could go with her that Sasuke would be able to grow up without constantly being compared to himself. It wasn’t fair to him at all.

  
They were heading to the market when Kagome stiffened. Shisui immediately stood back to back with her, Kunai out, Itachi in front of her. Kagome had grabbed Sasuke and tried to shield him behind her, as he had been chatting with Kagome about Azurite and Lapis Lazuli, the difference between them, and Kagome’s history lesson on them from her world. She whipped out her bow, an arrow notched, ready to fire. Mikoto noticed a second later, and the three shinobi made a triangle around the two. 

“Stay behind me Sasuke. It’s dangerous!” 

At that, Sasuke pulled out a kunai, and tried his utmost to be strong and brave. Itachi was proud of his reaction.

  
The auras were similar to last time. There were a couple different people this time. And more of them. 

“There’s eight. They are spread equally around us!” 

The street was oddly deserted. This had been planned and prepared. Kagome drew back her arrow, filled it with Horiki, and fired at a window. It destroyed the covering, and almost hit her target. He came at her. Itachi’s Genjutsu stopped him. Mikoto activated her Sharingan. Shisui had his activated as soon as he had his Kunai drawn. It seemed to trigger the rest of them to attack. Kagome fired arrows, she knew she was wide open for an attack, and that she couldn’t fight the way shinobi fought, but she still tried her best. She shielded Sasuke with her body as best as she could. She would rather she get injured compared to Sasuke. Her wish seemed to be granted when a kunai passed her cheek, a shallow cut. Kagome whipped her bow up, and deflected a second kunai thrown in the shadow of the first, noticing it because it was coated in chakra, extending the blade’s damage and range.

  
Shisui deflected a bunch of senbon, and called a swarm of crows. This gave the rest the opening they needed to slip out of there. Mikoto made clones in pairs, as did Itachi, and had half henge into Kagome. Kagome grabbed Sasuke, and shielded him better with her body while they transitioned into flight, hoping that would help deflect some damage if anything got aimed at him. He had managed to deflect a couple Kunai himself. Itachi grabbed them both, handing Sasuke to his mother, and they all moved away from the area. Shisui made sure they were far from the area before grabbing a Kagome clone and running from the area in the opposite direction. Only two pursued him. The rest went after Kagome, Itachi, Sasuke and Mikoto. Shisui swore, then turned and used his Genjutsu on them. They fell to the hard concrete streets below him. He turned and took off after the targets of the ROOT members.

* * *

  
Kagome charged the weapons Itachi used as he flung them out to defeat the ROOT ANBU after them. Only one had been taken down. They’d been running for a while. Kagome shifted in Itachi’s arms. “As long as you don’t do flips I can hold on. You need your hands!” And she wrapped her legs around Itachi’s waist, hooking her ankles around his back, then diagonally wrapped her arms around his torso, one over his shoulder, the other under the opposite arm. She grabbed above both of her elbows and held on for dear life. Itachi spun and released a katon, then created more clones, who took off in different directions from behind the fireball. They finally scattered. His mother was on his right, she took down two of the ROOT following them.

  
“I can feel Shisui, he’s coming up behind us!” 

Itachi frowned. “Pull your power in tight. We need to hide, and if the sensors feel you, they will find us.” 

Kagome nodded, and pulled her energy into herself as tightly as she could. He created a set of clones, one henge’d into Kagome, then used a substitution jutsu. From there, he teleported them down to a basement cellar. He picked the lock quickly, and slipped inside, helping her hide and make her presence unknown, left a clone with her, then left as he had entered. He re-locked the cellar the exact way he had found it, and then hid himself among the shadows, guarding the area.

* * *

  
Mikoto attached nin wire to several shuriken, and then chakra controlled them to create wire traps quickly, before leading another Root member into it. It had been so long since she had any action… This brought back memories, but her skills were rusty. She’d only been able to keep up the base skills since she was technically retired, and a house wife now. She’d hidden Sasuke up in a tree, knowing Shisui would sense him, and bring him to the Academy. They’d only been shopping for an hour and a half. There were still a few more hours of Academy time left. It would be the safest place for him right now. She knew where Kagome was hidden, specifically hiding them so they could get away from their pursuers. She released another katon, but this time when they came around the fire ball, she had her Sharingan ready, and put the last two into a genjutsu.

  
She signaled the Shisui who sped past her with Sasuke that Itachi and Kagome were fine. He saw him speed up, no longer worried about them. She checked her surroundings for more ROOT operatives, and found none. She led several false trails to several false hiding spots, made clones to continue making trains, and then went to the area she knew Itachi was hiding in. She gave the Uchiha’s bird whistle, and waited for Itachi to come to her. She knew better than to call for him. 

  
He stepped out of the shadows to the side of her. Mikoto nodded to him.

  
“She is alright? Do you need me to take her elsewhere then meet later? I can feed her supper if you’d like.” Itachi’s face pinked just a little. His mother was asking him if he’d like her to take Kagome home. This might be the best thing to do, but at the same time, he was technically bringing home a girl. He overcame his embarrassment, and Mikoto thought her son was adorable. He nodded at her. 

  
“I will leave a clone for Shisui. Let me get her. Stay here.”

* * *

  
An hour later found Kagome looking around Itachi’s home. It was open and spacious, but also very traditional, and beautifully kept. Dark wood floors, and doors accented by the dark wood trim that separated them from the white walls, and the dark wood door ways. The home itself was beautiful. She was silent as Itachi and Mikoto removed their shoes and moved into the home. Kagome did the same. Mikoto went to the kitchen sink and placed all her bloody ninja gear into the sink, and started up the water while adding the soap. She opened her hand towards Itachi, and he handed her any gear he used that had gotten bloody. She washed it all quickly and placed it into the dish dry rack. Kagome thought it looked odd. But that was most likely because she was not used to seeing such objects in a dry rack.

  
“You can go clean up if you’d like. Itachi, can you get her what she needs to shower? I’m sure she can wear something we bought today. Kagome, would you like something you know for dinner?” 

Kagome blinked, and her face went soft. “Can you make Oden?”

  
Mikoto smiled, and thought for a minute. While she didn’t have time to make a good beef stock, she did have a few stock pastes she could use to substitute.. And she could make the noodles pretty quickly. She just needed a few more ingredients. She sent a clone out to get them, before turning to smile at Kagome. 

“Go on, I’ll have it ready for dinner tonight. Itachi will still do his job of keeping you safe, even if he has to stand in the bathroom with you to do it. He won’t look, he is honorable.”

  
Kagome’s face was red at the last bit. Mikoto thought it was cute. Kagome quickly left the room, following Itachi’s aura, tentatively. She didn’t want to walk around someone else’s house she didn’t know. It felt just a bit too odd for her. 

  
“Itachi? Why does your home feel stiff?” Itachi looked out from pulling out things a girl would need to shower, He already had extras of everything he knew she used to clean herself, and was just bringing them to the bathroom. It may not be what she normally used, but at least she would be clean. She might even prefer the cleaning products of this world compared to her own. They were all home made. 

  
“Stiff?” Kagome came over and grabbed a couple things from him so it wasn’t so much to balance and carry without dropping.

  
“Yeah, it feels like I am walking into a lawyer’s office, one of the ones you know is racist, sexist, set in old ways that don’t make sense, and believes their religion is the law. Expects everyone to meet their expectations, even if they can’t actually do so. I’m not trying to be rude, I just don’t know how else to explain it.”

  
Itachi blinked at her. Was this another aura thing? “Perhaps you can feel the energies that are imprinted on a space?” 

Kagome blinked back. “You mean like a medium?” 

Itachi frowned for a moment. “What’s a medium?” Kagome’s face showed her surprise. 

  
“Well, mediums have a wide variety of abilities. Speaking with the dead, empathic, being able to sense feelings left in an area or building, some can see where an object has been, or what has happened to the owner of an object. There are a lot in different countries who help with murder cases, and missing persons cases.”

  
Itachi nodded. “My father is head of this clan. He has to be a lot of things. The elders force him to be so. Don’t expect to impress him when you meet him. It is difficult to do so. You also are not Shinobi. He will be forced to act a certain way around you. Don’t mind him. If he didn’t have to be this way, he wouldn’t be.”

  
Kagome nodded. “It’s okay, I understand. Sesshomaru is like that. He’s the Lord of the West, The House of the Moon, and Inu Yasha was supposed to be the prince, a backup incase he died, and had no heir. I get it.” She waited until Itachi opened the bathroom door, not knowing where it was, and followed him in to place everything she would need in the shower. He left the room then and she could feel him standing outside the door, most likely waiting for her to get into the shower before coming to stand guard, making sure no Shinobi would be able to get into take her. It was just a bit embarrassing.. But it was also understandable. With how they could teleport places, it’d be a snap to get in, grab her and get out. Once in the shower she called out to Itachi, who came in to wait for her to be done.


End file.
